Delhi, August 23, 2022: The third edition of ‘Roads and Highways Summit’ was organized by the FICCI on Tuesday morning at the FICCI Federation House in New Delhi. The theme of the event was ‘Accelerating Road Infrastructure in India’.
The Roads & Highways Summit 2022 comes in line with the Government of India’s vision of making India efficient in the management and operation of highways and world-class road infrastructure through a digitized and automated road construction industry.
The Chief Guest, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, inaugurated the summit.
Other dignitaries such as Senior Director of FICCI, Neerja Singh, Chairman of FICCI, BVN Rao, and Co-Chairman of FICCI, Shailesh Pathak were also in attendance.
Gadkari, in his address, mentions the Indian Highway Network which is the 2nd largest in the world. “We need to expand the national highway network for the development of our country which is why we aim to increase the coverage to 2 lakh kilometers by the year 2024”, he said.
Talking about the further progress of roadways, he says that the priority order is waterways, railways, roadways, and airways. “This is only possible when we have the complete support and cooperation of the Indian people. Water transport is the most important route which can improve the trade and economy of India”, he noted.
Highlighting the growing cost and usage of petrol and diesel, Gadkari suggests the usage of methanol and bioethanol instead of petrol which will help reduce the cost and pollution.
“Methanol, bioethanol, and green hydrogen would be the future of automobiles. This would be available at only one-third of the cost of petrol and would help to reduce pollution at the same time. These sources of fuel would also be indigenous in nature which helps to boost the Indian economy”, said Gadkari.
“Toyota will soon be releasing car models that will run on 100% bioethanol. We have already developed such auto-rickshaws in Pune that run on ethanol and there are three ethanol pumps installed in the city too”, he remarked. He further added that implementing such methods will bring down the cost of petrol to only Rs.20 per liter.
Gadkari ji mentioned that he held meetings with scientists and engineers from Indian Oil and after three months of trial period, they discovered that the caloric value of petrol is the same as ethanol and this would be a successful resource. “Petrol costs Rs.120 per km whereas ethanol would cost Rs.60 per km. Usage of ethanol will also help to boost the agricultural economy of India” he added.
“By the end of this year, we are also launching expressways that would connect Delhi to places like Dehradun, Haridwar, and Jaipur in just 2-4 hours”, said the minister. He further added that the government is developing 12 new green expressways that primarily reduce the travel time to just a mere few hours and also reduce air pollution, CO2 emissions, and fuel consumption.
Introducing the concept of double-decker highways, Gadkari Ji mentions that the government is also looking to construct two highways on top of each other in cities with greater population and traffic.
The roadways minister also announces ‘Infrastructure Investment Trust’ which would allow small investors to invest in infrastructure and roadways projects.
He also mentions that the development of roadways would also help to improve tourism in our country. “Almost 49% of employment potential is vested in tourism”, he said.
Gadkari concludes that alternative resources should be found and developed for materials like petrol, diesel, cement, and steel which would be cost-efficient, help to reduce pollution, and would be made in India. “All of this would take us one step closer to our PM Modi’s aim of Atmanirbhar Bharat”, he said.
The President of MSP Steel, Sambhit Das was also in attendance. In a conversation with Ten News, Das notes that his company agrees with Nitin Gadkari’s ideas for the Indian highways network and would partake to achieve the Atmanirbhar Bharat goal.
When asked about the future projects of his company, Das mentions that he had presented his company plans to Gadkari Ji and he was very satisfied with their ideas as well. “We see great opportunity for MSP Steel in line with this”, he said.
Talking about finding alternative resources, he notes that his company always focused on finding such resources and are very dedicated to such research projects as well.
The Roads and Highways Summit 2022 brings together leading market participants and relevant stakeholders to discuss and deliberate the forthcoming opportunities for growth of the sector and its contribution towards building an ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat.’
