While the Prime minister Narendra Modi on a rare occasion yesterday said that all the governments since independence contributed to the development and growth of the country, the road and transport minister Nitin Gadkari said that the country is indebted to former economist-PM Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Addressing an awards function of a portal namely Tax India Online., the minister yesterday thanked Singh for the liberal economic reforms. Manmohan Singh was finance minister in 1991 when Indian economy was liberalised.
While pointing out how liberal economy can help the country to lend helps to the poor, Gadkari said, “Liberal economy gave directions to the country. India is indebted to Manmohan Singh for leading the country to that direction.”
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Gadkari even recalled his days as minister in Maharashtra and said that he could only gather money for roads in 1990s due to the liberal economic reform floated by Singh. He also added that such economic policy helps the farmers and the poor.
Giving example of China, he noted that it is an example of how the liberal economic policy helps the country to grow.
He also referred to the recent projects of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and said that they are making 26 green expressways in the coming days. Gadkari added that there is no shortage of fund as they are raising contribution from the people.
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According to him, the toll revenue of NHAI will soar to Rs 1.40 lakh crore by the end of 2024 from Rs 40,000 crore per annum currently.
Emphasising on the significance of infrastructure he said, “We are constructing 40 kilometres of highways per day, our target is to construct 60 kilometres of highways per day.”
While the pace of National Highway (NH) construction in the country had touched a record 37 kilometres per day in 2020-21, it had slowed to 28.64 kilometres a day in 2021-22 due to pandemic-related disruptions and a longer-than-usual monsoon in some parts of the country.
