Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways said his ministry was prepared to address the water woes of the country. The minister was in flood-hit Bengaluru to inaugurate ‘Manthan’, a two-day national conference cum public expo.
“The Union government has come up with the Amrit Sarovar scheme. The road transport and highway ministry can do great work in addressing our woes around water,” he said during the programme.
Creating lakes through highways
Gadkari said he hailed from the Vidarbha region where 10,000 farmers had committed suicide, mostly due to agrarian crises triggered by water scarcity.
“There is water crisis everywhere. There is no dearth of water, but no proper management of water. We can use our highways for building lakes. Highways require soil, which can be obtained in a manner that new water bodies can be formed,’‘ Gadkari said.
This would not only fulfill the road construction requirement but also create new lakes in rural areas, which would eventually increase the groundwater table, the minister added.
He said, for example, a university got 36 new lakes and the nearby villages got 22 new wells thanks to certain projects by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
Integrated approach for transport
The Union minister said such an integrated approach and innovative measure would also decrease the cost of infrastructure projects in the country. He urged all ministers and bureaucrats of states and central governments to work on reducing project costs to the minimum so that society, in general, would be benefited.
He also underscored the importance of an integrated approach with multi-modal transportation being at the core if India has to become a five trillion dollar economy. “Some 90% of passenger traffic and 70% goods traffic use roads, and there is a need for an integrated approach where waterways, railways and airports are interlinked, and logistics parks will play a critical role too,’‘ he added.
An integrated approach was essential to reduce logistics costs from 16% to 10% (China is at 10% and Europe at 12%), according to the minister.
