Wish to start five star cruises in Ganga: Nitin Gadkari

Frankly speaking, India definitely needs huge amount of funds for infrastructure development. In our country, we have 52 lakh kilometer of road length, out of which only 96,000 km were national highways, which is just two percent of the road length. Forty percent of traffic runs on this road length. Our automobile growth is 22 percent. Now, we have decided to increase this length from 96,000 km to two lakh km, where 80 percent of traffic will be on national highway.

There is huge potential (in India). We are planning for express highways and next month, we will inaugurate first express highway for the country—the eastern bypass in Delhi. In the same month, we will be in a position to start first phase of Delhi- Meerut expressway as well. We are planning for 12 to 13 new express highways.

Even if we are not in a position to build more roads, we are expanding existing highways to two lanes; where the traffic volume is more than 10,000 vehicles we are expanding highways to four lanes; for traffic volume of more than 20,000 vehicles we are making six- lane highways. Somewhere, we are even making eight lane roads.

Actually, during the last 15 years, after Vajpayee ji’s regime and during UPA’s governance, no one took the decisions. As a result, five lakh accidents now happen on our roads. Also, we need to develop public transport on electricity. Role of infrastructure is our economy is very big.

Whatever cement is manufactured in India, more than 40 percent is used by roads. Our infrastructure also uses steel. At the same time, construction machinery has grown by 76 percent. So, naturally, we are giving jobs to youth through this.

Apart from that, we are also developing inland waterways. We have 20,000 km of river length which will be converted to inland waterways. We will complete work for national waterways -1 by end of 2018.

The previous fiscal (2017-18) saw a lot of policy decisions coming into play, from the Bharatmala programme to push towards electric vehicles. How will 2018-19 pan out?

From a policy point of view, a lot of decisions have already been taken. Tax on petrol and diesel is 48 percent while GST on biofuel and electric vehicle is 12 percent. Certainly, prices for electric vehicles will be reduced. It is important to realise that we are importing crude oil worth Rs eight lakh crore. But now we have indigenous ethanol from cotton straw, wheat straw and rice straw. All this has potential to boost agriculture economy. We are coming with 100 percent ethanol bikes and auto-rickshaw. In Nagpur, we have 55 buses running on biofuel, we have 200 electric taxis and we have decided to make 800 e-taxis. So, I feel, this is the future.

Cost of one litre of petrol or diesel is Rs 80 or Rs 60 respectively. But one litre of ethanol, with equal calorific value, is approximately Rs 47. So, when you use conventional fuel car, your monthly expenditure is Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000, but the same expenditure is less than Rs 1,000 with electric car. Pollution is a big concern. With taxes coming down, people will definitely adopt it.

How are the projects under Bharatmala shaping up and what is the present situation?

We have 24,800 km of road projects under Bharatmala (Phase I) with cost outlay of Rs 5.35 lakh crore and I feel that by the end of Dec 2018, we will be in position to start projects worth more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

How much of highway project award and construction target has been achieved? What will be the target for next year?

Final figure will come by March end. Till now, however, we have touched 28 km per day and we will try to maintain the same pace till the end of this fiscal year.  Next year, our target is 40 km per day and I am confident that we will achieve that.

MoRTH had set a target of awarding 25,000 km of national highways. However, as per data on your website, only 2,917 km of highway projects were awarded till November. Why is there such a huge gap between the target and actual result?

We have not been given appointment date for 80 percent of land acquisition. We have, also, not been given appointment date for financial approval and same is for forest and environment clearance. That is the reason, I went to Lucknow about a fortnight ago to hold meeting with the chief minister (Yogi Adityanath) and other officials. I also held meeting with the chief minister of Uttrakhand (T.S Rawat) in Dehradun. Similarly, I met chief minister of Bihar (Nitish Kumar) in Patna and held a meeting. All the meetings were for six to eight hours. I also have a meeting scheduled in Maharashtra to hold project by project review meeting. Things are now moving faster. My target is that, by the end of March, we will increase award target by 1,000 km Y-o-Y. We are working on it, but the procedures for land acquisitions cause the delay.

Talk around Toll Operate Transfer (ToT) has not been very optimistic from corporate point of view. Bidders have said that certain terms and conditions of the model are not investor friendly. Moreover, final date for bidding has been extended twice (From January 9 to February 8 and now February 22). Will the government relook at the terms of agreement?

There has been good response for TOT auctions. As this is the first auction (under the model), we are holding meeting with the bidders. They have given some suggestions and we are working on them.

What is the progress on port development programme, Sagarmala?

Work on Sagarmala is moving very fast now. It’s a project worth Rs four lakh crore. We are expecting investments for port modernisation and mechanisation, port rail and road connectivity. Out of Rs four lakh crore, projects worth Rs 2.6 lakh crore have begun. There are 14 industrial clusters and economic zones. We are also developing five smart cities. I am expecting a lot of investment by December. We will also put cabinet note on coastal employment zones. There is huge potential.

Waterways as a means of transport has been very close to your heart with inland waterways, cruise shipping and Ro-Ro services seeing the light of the day. How do you look at future of India’s waterways?

About 15 days ago, we have signed an agreement with the largest ship building company (United Shipbuilding Corporation) in Russia with Cochin Shipyard Limited. We are trying to develop all type of new hovercrafts and sea planes in India through Make in India. Indian industry has huge potential. We have given order to CSL to build roller boats… Regular cargo, like cement, is exported through Brahmaputra river.

We have started work in Ganga and hopefully, will complete work on National Waterways 1 (Varanasi to Haldia) by December 2018. There are plans for four multi-modal transit systems, 16 river ports, nine ferry services and eight Ro-Ro services. There are plans for air-based river traffic control system between Haldia and Patna. Repair work on Farakka gate has begun along with dredging of Brahmaputra on National Waterways 2.

For cruise tourism, we received 80 cruises this year in Mumbai and expect the number to grow to 950 over the next five years. We also intend to have four or five star cruise in Ganga.

There is a good start in waterways but still, our ambition is very high. Within six to eight months, the picture will begin to change.

When will sea planes and amphibious buses become a reality in India?

We brought one amphibious bus in Mumbai, but the environment department did not give us permission to run it. We plan to run it across various rivers, including Ganga. As far as seaplane is concerned, we call it flyboat but aviation ministry calls it seaplane. If it’s flying, they have the control over it, but if it’s sailing, we will get the control. We are preparing plans for jetties and a committee has been formed for it too. It has various international consultants and within three months, it will be finalized.

Is your ministry on track for Clean Ganga programme?

Out of 180 projects, we have completed 47 projects. Our target is to allot all the projects by March 2018. I am confident that by March 2019, 80 to 90 percent Ganga will be clean.

How is the government planning to take Air India’s divestment ahead?

I can’t talk about Air-India right now. The committee is working on it.