Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday stressed on the need to document the story of India's rapid strides in development of infrastructure such as roads, tunnels, expressways, bridges and high speed railways.
“India's brightest and brilliant minds were truly re-imagining the country's potential and pushing the envelope with each new engineering marvel be it road tunnels, river and seaports, expressways, airports, bridges, high-speed railways,” he said at a function here.
Thakur was speaking at a function to unveil a new documentary series 'Build India – A Story of Building New India' created by Effective Initiatives Pvt Ltd in partnership with Discovery Channel. Union ministers Bhagwanth Khuba and Bhagwat Karad were also present at the event.
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The 12-part documentary series is curated and anchored by Vaibhav Dange, Advisor, National Highway Authority of India.
Thakur said the government has set a scorching pace of construction of highways as part of efforts to boost the economy.
“The pace of national highways (NHs) construction has increased by three times since 2014-15. The average per day figure has grown from 12 km per day in 2014-15 to 37 km per day in 2020-21,” the minister said.
He said in the last eight years, the length of National Highways has gone up by more than 50 per cent from 91,000 km in 2014 to about 1.47 lakh km now.
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Thakur said nearly 3.26 lakh kms of rural roads have also been built since 2014.
He said there were several sectors in which India was emerging as a leading player, particularly in the area of renewable energy.
“India stands at fourth position in the world in terms of installed renewable energy capacity, fifth in solar and fourth in wind energy capacity,” he said.
“There are stories of India's rise and rejuvenation everywhere you look. These are the stories that need to be documented and told to the world. So it is wonderful that you have taken up one such key aspect of India's transformation,” Thakur said.
He said the 'Build India' series celebrated the very best of Indian infrastructure works – roads, ports, power transmission lines, waterways, tunnels, bridges, and aviation projects – which are often quietly built through the invisible but tireless efforts.
-With PTI Input
