In some very good news for those who travel by road, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has shared several updates regarding the road network in India. Amongst the updates, one of the biggest highlights has to be the fact that travelling from Mumbai to Delhi will soon be able to cover this distance in just a matter of 12 hours. And that’s not it, those wanting to travel all the way to Srinagar from Mumbai will be able to cover this distance in 20 hours.
On Tuesday, on the progress in the building of infrastructure, the minister said that road travel between Delhi to Jaipur; and Delhi to Haridwar now takes 2 hours. Similarly, the travel time from Delhi to Amritsar is now four hours. Gadkari said that connectivity between Delhi to Mumbai will be improved such that the travel time is reduced to 12 hours and added that “we will complete within this year”.
“From Ladakh, Leh to Srinagar we will go to Mumbai…. before the end of this year, we will try that from Srinagar you are able to reach Mumbai in 20 hours,” the minister said. Work is on in full swing for the Zojila tunnel in Kashmir and is expected to be completed by 2024, much before the scheduled target of 2026, he said. Gadkari said currently 70 per cent of goods and 90 per cent of the passenger traffic are travelling by road, as he highlighted the importance of becoming more competitive and reducing logistics costs.
Road projects worth Rs 62,000 crore have been undertaken in the national capital to ease traffic congestions, and tackle the problem of pollution, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday. Replying to a debate on the Demands for Grants for Road Transport and Highways Ministry, 2022-23, in the Lok Sabha, Gadkari recalled how he used to get stuck for an hour in Dhaula Kuan traffic every time he used to travel to and from the airport.
