Opposition leaders praise Gadkari but flag concerns over quality of roads

Participating in the discussion on the 'demand for grants of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' for 2022-23 in Lok Sabha, most MPs, both from Opposition and treasury benches, began their address by hailing the work done by Gadkari in the road transport sector and lauded his hands-on approach.

New Delhi: Several Opposition leaders on Monday praised the work of Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari but flagged some concerns on issues such as quality of roads, their maintenance and alleged lack of transparency in toll collection. Participating in the discussion on the 'demand for grants of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' for 2022-23 in Lok Sabha, most MPs, both from Opposition and treasury benches, began their address by hailing the work done by Gadkari in the road transport sector and lauded his hands-on approach.

BJP MP from Arunachal Pradesh Tapir Gao hailed road construction under the Modi government and said top car companies, including Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes and Lamborghini, now participate in car rallies because of good roads in the state. "The road network has even reached Kalapani (in Uttarakhand). Like Spider-Man's web, Nitin Gadkari too is putting in place a network of road connectivity," Gao said.

A number of Opposition MPs also flagged issues of concern and called for speeding up of existing projects. CPI(M) MP from Kerala A M Ariff thanked Gadkari for the development of national highways in Kerala in a time-bound manner. Underlining that road transport has an important role in employment generation, Ariff alleged that this government is adopting an approach of excessively relying on the private sector for the development of roads. He also said private companies are looting people for years and years and there is no transparency in the amount collected as tolls.

"As per the agreement made by the NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) with the private players, after the construction cost is recovered the toll rates are to be reduced to 40 per cent. But what is happening that rates are hiked every now and then on the whims and fancies of private players, and NHAI and central government remaining mute spectators," Ariff said. "I challenge the government to come up with a white paper on the toll collected so far as part of various projects in the country to bring the facts before the people," he demanded and urged the Centre to stop collecting tolls for small projects so that people are not overburdened.

BSP MP Danish Ali praised the ministry, saying it has done a lot of good work in recent years. "Personally, I would like to compliment ministers of this ministry for the good work they have done all these years," he said. Ali, however, expressed concern over the issue of the about Rs 3,38,000 crore debt of the NHAI and wondered how that will be overcome.

National highways have been built but the condition of state highways is very bad and the allocation to state PWDs is minimal, he argued. The fund allocation has gone up three times but the speed of highway construction does not match that, Ali said. "NHAI is a big and good organisation but the problem is that most officials there are on deputation. We saw that the post of the chairman was also vacant recently. Several important posts are vacant. I appeal to the government that recruitment to NHAI should be direct as that would make the loyalty of those officials more to the organisation," he said.

The BSP leader also flagged that the issue of maintenance of roads was a matter of concern. "Your target was to construct road for 12,000 km this year but till March 10, only 8,278 km has been constructed. You are getting the funds but there is some problem," he added. Congress Lok Sabha member M K Vishnu Prasad said the previous UPA governments laid the foundation of developing road connectivity in the country, which has led to its road network becoming the second largest globally.

Participating in the discussion, Prasad sought to know from the government the reason for escalation in the allocation to about Rs 2 lakh crore. "The treasury benches are very proud of the 63.5 lakh km of road coverage which is the second longest globally after the US. But this expansion did not happen overnight. It was the previous Congress governments under (Jawaharlal) Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, which laid the foundation and that is why today India has the second largest road network," he said.

Questioning the 68 per cent hike in allocation to the road transport and highways ministry for the next fiscal, Prasad said the quality of road is pathetic and only Rs 356 crore has been allocated towards road safety. Congress MP from Himachal Pradesh Pratibha Singh flagged the issue of the need for efficient road network in the hill state to boost its economic development. She said the pace of four-laning of highway in her state was slow which was hampering tourism that is the backbone of the state.

National Conference MP Hasnain Masoodi praised Gadkari for his work but flagged concern over the quality of roads being constructed. BJP member Ram Kripal Yadav said the PM Gati Shakti programme will play a critical role in raising India's GDP to USD 5 trillion, besides generating jobs. Hanuman Beniwal (RLP) demanded that all villages should be connected by roads. He also demanded that all road tolls should be abolished and the country should be made 'toll-free'.

N K Premachandran (RSP) objected to the absence of Gadkari during the discussion on demands for grants for his ministry. Observing that Gadkari is doing a good job, Premachandran said parliamentary ethics demanded that the Minister who was seeking approval of Lok Sabha for spending Rs 1.9 lakh crore during 2022-23 should be present in the House.

PTI