Nitin Gadkari retains road ministry to remain longest serving cabinet minister under Modi govt

Nitin Gadkari

Nitin Gadkari, a two-time union minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led cabinets, took oath for a third time as part of the new Council of Ministers on June 9, 2024.

Gadkari's return as the road minister puts to rest days of speculations over a change in portfolio for the longest serving cabinet minister in the Modi cabinet.

Ajay Tamta and Harsh Malhotra have both been made the Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

The 67-year-old Gadkari from Nagpur in Maharashtra has been the longest serving minister for Road Transport & Highways as he held the portfolio in the last two governments led by Narendra Modi.

As a former BJP president and a prominent figure closely associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Gadkari has deep roots inside the Sangh. He has successfully secured the Lok Sabha seat for Nagpur, the city that hosts the RSS headquarters, in three consecutive elections, demonstrating his enduring popularity and influence.

Gadkari has been credited for stellar work in expanding road connectivity to the most remote corners in the first two terms and placing the country on the path of becoming the fastest growing major economy at a time of recessionary fears across the globe.

Ajay Tamta, a Dalit face and third-time MP from Almora, was picked as a minister in the Modi cabinet.

Mr. Malhotra, 58, a first-time MP, was picked as the BJP candidate from the East Delhi constituency after the party dropped its sitting MP Gautam Gambhir. He defeated Aam Aadmi Party candidate Kuldeep Kumar.

Road infrastructure in the country

According to a government's review at the end of 2023, the national highways network in the country increased by 60 per cent -- from 91,287 km in 2014 to 1,46,145 km in 2023.

In the past 10 years, minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari and his teams built 54,860 km of national highways, according to data from the annual reports of the ministry of road transport and highways.

A combination of improved quality of road construction, higher land costs, and the government funding the National Highways Authority of India for the past two years has led to an almost eight-fold increase in the budgetary allocation to the sector.

According to NHAI estimates, the average cost of road construction increased to about Rs 30 crore per km in 2023 from Rs 6-8 per km crore in 2015.

Toll collection from road users increased to about Rs 40,000 in FY23 from Rs 14,200 crore in FY15, driven by the availability of new routes. NHAI's toll collection increased to Rs 15,605 crore so far in FY24 from Rs 4,136 crore in FY15.

Gadkari expects India's toll collection to touch Rs 1.3 lakh crore by 2030. The minister claimed that the waiting time at toll plazas has been reduced to 47 seconds in 2023 from 734 seconds in 2014.

Challenges facing the new road minister

While the MoRTH and the NHAI have set ambitious plans to develop roads and highways in its budgets year after year under the National Democratic Alliance government, they have missed the targets set for seven of the last 10 years.

Given the government's ambitious highway construction targets since 2014, NHAI’s borrowing spree from FY15 to FY22 led to a sharp increase in its repayment burden. NHAI’s debt servicing costs shot up almost 2.5 times to about Rs 36,100 crore in FY23 from Rs 14,443 crore in FY19 even after the government asked it to reduce borrowings after 2021.

Additionally, NHAI's debt has risen to Rs 3.4 lakh crore in March 2023 from Rs 23,800 crore in March 2014. Since 2021, the government has pushed NHAI and the road ministry to raise funds through divestment and asset monetisation.

India’s pace of constructing national highways is also expected to slow down in 2024-25, according to two rating agencies — CareEdge and India Ratings and Research. ICRA, on the other hand, expects the construction to increase on account of a robust order pipeline.

Road construction usually sees a drop in an election year as the execution of projects is delayed during the model code of conduct and project awarding is delayed in the financial year before the Lok Sabha elections