Hon’ble Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Government of India
Mr. Nitin Gadkari is the Minister for Road Transport and Highways (RTH), Government of India. Mr. Nitin Gadkari was born on 27th May 1957 in a middle-class family with roots in agriculture in Maharashtra’s orange-city Nagpur. Mr. Gadkari got involved very closely with the Rashtriya SwayamSevak Sangh (RSS) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and took to social work in a big way.
Gadkari Ji completed his Post-Graduation in Commerce, besides studying Law and obtaining a Diploma in Business Management. Mr. Gadkari formally entered politics in 1980. Gadkari Ji has always said that Politics is an instrument to bring socio-economic reforms in society. He went on to become BJP’s State President in Maharashtra in 2005. He was elevated to the post of party’s National President at the young age of 52 in 2009. He also served as PWD Minister in Maharashtra Government and was leader of the opposition in the state legislative council for four consecutive terms.
Gadkari Ji has made it its mission to implement a transport fuel which is import-substitute, cost effective, indigenous and pollution-free. Under Mr. Gadkari’s guidance, the city of Nagpur was the first city to explore alternative biofuels for transportation including bio-CNG, bio-ethanol and LNG. Mr. Gadkari is also introducing flex fuel engines to be run on 100% ethanol, and launched a first ever tractor run on bi-CNG, thus providing additional income to farmers and the agricultural sector. He also emphasized on adoption of Green Hydrogen as a clean and indigenous source of energy across various industries and mobility sectors. Recently, Gadkari Ji launched a car in Delhi, on pilot basis that is run purely on hydrogen.
Under his supervision, over 91,287 kms of National Highways have been constructed in the last 7 years and 30, 0000 kms of new roads are being constructed currently. Twenty two world class access-controlled Greenfield expressway projects being led by Mr Gadkari under Bharatmala pariyojana phase-1, are presently in various stages of construction. He is the man behind marvelous engineering showcases like Bandra-Worli Sea Link, 55 flyovers in Mumbai, India‘s First Mumbai-Pune Expressway, 14-lane Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Nagpur’s multi-layer metro rail cum flyover system and upcoming high-tech Delhi-Mumbai expressway.
35 multi-modal logistics parks, 50 economic corridors and 15 intermodal stations are currently being developed under Gadkari Ji’s tenure. Among his other endeavors, unprecedented progress is evident in port industrialization, national water highway traffic, jetties for coastal tourism, Ganga-Yamuna cleaning, fund raising, asset monetization projects, etc. He is now taking a lead in development of new sustainable mobility and last mile connectivity modes like Ropeway, Cable car, Funicular rail, etc. across the country.
Mr. Gadkari introduced the first ever Vehicle Scrappage Policy which proved to be the fight against pollution in the interest of Road and Vehicle safety. New FASTAG policy is helping commuters to save their fuel and time on toll plazas. Some of his major work includes unprecedented push for R&D in electric vehicles for developing alternative battery chemistries
such as Sodium ion and Aluminum ion batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. With a waste to wealth policy, Gadkari Ji is promoting the use of new, advanced and recycled waste materials into road construction works. For fast and economical construction, He has mandated large scale use of prefabricated precast concrete elements in the highways projects. He is encouraging tree plantation along the highways, installation of solar panels, rain water harvesting and artificial groundwater recharge systems. Mr. Gadkari is committed for the development of qualitative, time-bound, cost effective and sustainable world-class infrastructures in the country.
During his tenure as the Union Minister Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation, the monumental Namami Gange project became a mass movement involving central and state government agencies, private sector and foreign investors, NGOs, spiritual and social organizations as well as the common people. With his political stature he resolved inter-state disputes on water sharing and river linking involving 16 rivers in 11 states in a short span of six months. During his tenure, first Inland Waterway was developed, and goods movement commenced between Varanasi and Kolkata, adding a new dimension to the logistical history of the country.
