Nitin Gadkari

The primary aim of the program is to provide car buyers with a tool to assess and compare the crash safety of different motor vehicles available in the market

Earlier in the month, a political row erupted on the CAG report which flagged the high cost of construction of the Dwarka Expressway.

MoRTH said the average cost of special projects enveloping substantial lengths of bridges/via-ducts/tunnels under Phase-I of the Bharatmala Pariyojna stands at around Rs 152 crore/km.

The auditor has also found deficiencies in the appraisal and approval mechanism proposed to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs

A delegation of the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) submitted a letter to Minister of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari in this regard.

The aim is to provide seamless and secure connectivity to Krishnapatnam Port, enabling faster accessibility to national master plan nodes, industrial nodes and the SEZ at Nellore.

The draft notification seeks to mandate installation of air-conditioning system in cabins of motor vehicles belonging to categories N2 and N3, manufactured from January 1, 2025 onwards.

The modern manufacturing unit will have enhanced wagon manufacturing capacity. It will help in employment generation and development of ancillary units in nearby areas, an official release stated.

This decision marks a significant milestone in providing comfortable working conditions for truck drivers, thereby improving their efficiency and addressing the problem of driver fatigue, Gadkari said.

Gadkari said that the current import is worth Rs 16 lakh crores, this money can go to the homes of farmers if they grow energy-producing crops that can be used to develop ethanol.

He also said that India has beaten Japan in automobile manufacturing and has come in number 3 position globally after China and the US.

This follows the speed of road construction rising significantly in May and June after getting off to a slow start in April.

Nitin Gadkari, while inaugurating a week-long programme virtually on 'Infrastructure Sector in the Indian Economy and the Financing Challenge', said the union government was giving a lot of importance to innovation, research and technology for shaping the future of the infrastructure sector in the country.

The road, transport and highways minister said the road network is being set up under the Bharatmala Pariyojana.

The minister did not provide details on the timeline for completion and operationalisation of the trilateral highway.

India's road network stood at 1,45,240 km today compared to 91,287 km in 2013-14, the Road, Transport and Highways Minister said.

Nitin Gadkari said he would launch Toyota company's Camry car in August, which will run 100 per cent on ethanol and it will also generate 40 per cent electricity.

Gadkari referred to a road project being constructed to connect Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, and the automobile industry.

We are bringing new vehicles that will run entirely on ethanol. Bajaj, TVS and Hero scooters will run on 100 per cent ethanol," the minister said.

The minister of road transport and highway said more attention needs to be given to the agricultural, rural and tribal sectors, and pointed out that the objective of each government policy must be to double the contribution to GDP of these segments to 25 per cent from the present 12 per cent.