Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari outlined government efforts to tackle air pollution, reduce logistics costs, and lower fossil fuel imports. He highlighted projects converting rice straw to fuel, promoting precast construction materials, and developing green express highways. Gadkari also addressed road safety concerns and emphasized his commitment to socio-economic reform.
New Delhi: Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said the government is working on multiple fronts to reduce air pollution, bring down logistics costs, lower the import of fossil fuels and enhance farm income.
"Transport ministry is responsible for 40% of the air pollution in Delhi and the national capital region.
While a huge part of it is due to stubble burning in neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana, road construction and fossil fuels also add to the annual problem," he said, addressing the Times Network 's India Economic Conclave on Friday.
"The problem of stubble burning will be solved in two years as we are working on 400 projects that will convert 200 lakh tonnes of rice straw every year to alternate fuels ." The minister said construction activities also add significantly to the air pollution but it can be reduced by using precast materials.
"We have written to the finance minister seeking concessions on precast material to encourage their use. This will help reduce pollution and bring down cost," he said.
Gadkari said the government is working on all green fuels and hopes to substantially reduce the import of fossil fuels, which costs ₹22 lakh crore per year.
"Our aim is to raise production of alternate fuels to ₹10 lakh crore.
This will help reduce import dependence, enhance farmers' contribution to the economy and increase their purchasing power, which in turn will push the overall economic growth in India," he said.
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"We need to strengthen the public transport in the country, make it world-class and co fortable to prompt people to use public transport instead of private cars," he said, adding that this would help reduce the number of cars in the country.
On logistics cost The road transport and highways ministry is working on 36 green express highways which will help reduce the logistics costs in the country.
"India's logistics cost is 14-16% compared to 8% in China and 12% in the US and EU," Gadkari said.
"We aim to bring this down to 9% in two years.
This will push India's exports by 1.5 times and help us become more competitive.
" On road accidents India is Number 1 in the world in terms of deaths due to road accidents, with 178,000 deaths from 500,000 accidents a year owing to faulty roads and automobile engineering, poor enforcement of law and lack of education and awareness, Gadkari said.
"Despite trying hard over the last 10 years we haven't succeeded in reducing road accidents in the country," he said.
The minister said the recent initiatives on rectifying black spots on national highways, tweaking the bidding norms for detailed project reports and introduction of star ratings for automobiles would help reduce the number of accidents in the country.
On politics "Politics is not my profession.
It is an instrument of socio-economic reform.
I believe social service and good work will help win public support and I will go by my conviction instead of resorting to caste politics," Gadkari said.
He said those who cannot win elections on the basis of their social work use the caste agenda to win elections.
"Backwardness is becoming a political interest and so everyone wants to support the backward class.
I feel everyone should get equal opportunity irrespective of caste, creed, religion or sex," he said.
Commenting on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's pitch for three children per family, Gadkari said while he agreed with the idea, "it is time to see population growth in the country in proportion to the land, water, electricity and other resources". "It is time to think on economic terms and not on religion and caste lines," he said.