Nitin Gadkari - building first class infrastructure

August 20, 2021

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In 1996 Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) was formed by the Shiv-Sena-BJP government of Maharashtra to create better roads under PPP model. The first ‘expressway’ in India came up between Mumbai and Pune and Nitin Gadkari was behind this project. The expressway fully opened in 2002 giving Indian commuters a new experience. Two-wheelers and slow vehicles were not allowed in this expressway and commuting time was greatly reduced.

The next expressway in India was Noida-Agra ‘Yamuna’ expressway initiated by UP government under CM Mayawati. This was north India’s first expressway and it created lot of political resistance by opposition parties in UP. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led farmer’s resistance against land acquisition for the expressway. He visited a greater Noida district ‘Bhatta Parsaul’ village where land acquisition resistance was going on to revive congress’s political fortune in. Rahul Gandhi got arrested in while showing solidarity with farmers in 2011 and prevent the construction of the expressway. After few days of high decibel drama and media publicity, he quietly dumped the village and forgot the farmer's agitation. Next time Rahul Gandhi was arrested on this expressway in October 2020 when he was using the expressway to go to Hathras to meet the family of highly politicized rape victim. This example shows opposition leaders will always do disruptive politics to create a political agitation and prevent big ticket projects and never hesitate to use the infrastructure.

Rahul Gandhi was arrested in 2011 for preventing the construction of Yamuna Expressway

Rahul Gandhi again arrested in Yamuna expressway for using the expressway to go to Hathras

The decision to build the Delhi-Meerut expressway was announced in the 2006 budget speech by then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. Construction of 1,000 km of expressways under National Highway Development Program (NHDP) Phase-VI was approved in November 2006 but hardly any progress till Nitin Gadkari under Modi government pushed the expressway projects.

Mumbai-Pune expressway is India’s first expressway

Yamuna Expressway is north India’s first expressway

When the Yamuna expressway was under construction during 2007-2011, Jaypee group which was constructing the expressway, made highway signboards stating – ‘a new way to travel – Noida to Agra – nonstop’ highlighting non-stop travel in an expressway. The second expressway in north is Delhi-Meerut expressway.

In an election rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan before 2019 general election, PM Modi said the benefit of expressways to commuters. He said the 1st phase of Delhi-Meerut 8 km long 14 lane expressway from Sarai Kale Khan, Delhi to UP gate border enabled commuters to commute from India Gate to UP border in 15 minutes flat. Earlier, same distance used to take an hour (video available on social media). This is a new way to measure distance which is in terms of time is taken in commuting rather than distance in km. The expressways are actually reducing commuting time to half or even less. Some examples of expressway travel time are

Delhi - Meerut - 50 mins

Delhi - Dehradun - 2 hrs

Delhi - Jaipur outer - 2 hrs (Delhi- Mumbai expressway)

Delhi - Amritsar - 4 hrs

Bengaluru - Chennai - 4 hrs

Delhi - Katra - 7 hrs

Delhi - Mumbai - 12 hrs

Foundation stone for Delhi-Meerut expressway was laid on 30 December 2015 and 1st phase 9 km 14 lane section was inaugurated on 27 May 2018 by PM Modi which means a construction period of two years and four months only. Contractor Welspun received Rs. 27.09 crore as a bonus from NHAI for the 332 days early completion of Package-1 which is unique because in the congress era, projects used to get delayed by decades. Another highlight was usage of solid waste from east Delhi’s Ghazipur waste dump as construction material and thus reducing its height. The entire 82 km was completed on April 1, 2021 and opened for traffic.

Since Nitin Gadkari became highway and transport minister in central government, number of expressway projects exploded. Currently, as many as 23 expressway are under execution and work is progressing at fast pace.

Eastern and Western peripheral expressways reduced 25% Delhi’s air pollution

Bringing Chinese construction speed in India

4X compensation to farmers land. Drones are used for project monitoring and prevent delays.

Record-breaking concrete laid in 24 hrs

Dwarka expressway, Gurugram is eight lane elevated expressway on a single pier

Electric toll collection using Fastag

Germany’s Autobahn in India.

Su-30MKI fighter jet in Agra-Lucknow expressway

Expressways creating huge jobs and steel, concrete consumption

India’s leftist’s and communist’s from Bengal, Kerala and ivory tower institutes like JNU will never appreciate the massive infrastructure development as this was never part of their agenda. Their agenda is only to slow down big ticket infra projects as these projects are used only by rich people!