‘Chhattisgarh will have roads ‘like those in America’ in 5 years’: Nitin Gadkari

RAIPUR: Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday promised to build roads in Chhattisgarh over the next five years that will be comparable to those in the United States of America.

Gadkari, who was speaking at a function to lay the foundation stone for 33 highway projects worth ₹9,240 crore in the state ruled by the Congress, has long advocated higher spending on road infrastructure in the country. Last month, Gadkari told parliament that the government’s massive upgrade of the road network will make India’s road infrastructure like that of America by December 2024.

He reiterated the point at Thursday’s event.

“For the growth of any state, strengthening the water, transport, power and communication sectors are very important. The balanced development of these four sectors accelerates the agriculture and industry growth and results in the creation of employment… Therefore, it is very important to build a road network in the country. I assure you to build such roads in Chhattisgarh that will be equivalent to America in the next five years,” Gadkari added.

The minister also formally dedicated two road up-gradation projects, a two-lane stretch from Manendragarh to Surajpur and a two-lane road from Chilpi to Kawardha.

Gadkari said the 33 road projects will improve Chhattisgarh’s connectivity with Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Speaking at the function presided by Congress leader and chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, the union minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party, underlined that “politics of development is different from politics of party”. “Politics of the 21st century is politics for progress and development. It is the duty of all of us to remove poverty, hunger and unemployment. We should do politics during elections, but after that development of the country, village, farmer and poor should be our priority,” he added.

The minister also highlighted the importance of focussing on road infrastructure in Maoist-affected areas.

“If Naxalism is to be ended, then it should also be looked at as a socio-economic problem. The most important solution to this is that we should create employment potential and set up industries (in such areas),” he said, adding that it was good that most of the projects for which the foundation stone was laid today belong to tribal areas of the state.