UNION Minister Nitin Gadkari recently inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for about 35 major road projects in MP, totalling 1,530 km and worth around Rs 11,311 crore. Paving the way for development of MP, these roads will enhance better connectivity, convenience and economic growth in and around the State. Movement of people and goods to and from the State of Madhya Pradesh will also improve substantially especially with the neighbouring States of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh etc. The better roads lead to savings in time and fuel and as well lower emission of pollutants. Further, these projects will decongest roads and the enroute towns contributing to improved road experience. Impetus to enhancing and strengthening road infrastructure in the country through aggressive construction of expressways can be a support system for the tourism industry too, as more people will travel on these roads for the ease of commute they provide.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari said, the NH length in the State is 13,248 kms today, which was barely 5,186 kms in the year 2014. He said, Rs 1,25,000 crore worth of development works are underway in Madhya Pradesh. As much as 60 to 70 per cent works have been completed for approximately Rs 30,000-crore worth road works in the State. He said, several of these roads are important for providing connectivity to the tourist spots and backward/remote areas of the State. The Minister announced that by the year 2023, development works worth Rs 50,000 crore are targeted for completion. The Minister further informed that work has already started on the 1,260-km eight lane access controlled Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, of which 244 km 8-lane length will be constructed in Madhya Pradesh at a cost of Rs 8,214 crore. He said, the work has already been awarded for the MP section of this Expressway, which will pass through Ramganj Mandi, Garoth, Jawra and Ratlam areas of Malwa region, and Thandla (Jhabua). He said, a 173-km long 4-lane road will be made to provide connectivity to the Malwa region from the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.

 

This will pass through Indore, Dewas, Ujjain, Agar to Garoth, and the works will be awarded by December this year. It goes without saying that in today’s world, rapid and safe communication is the key to development- be it digital or physical. While we have made strides in the digital space, when it comes to road infrastructure of international standards, we have always been laggards. Madhya Pradesh is one of the States which has an old legacy of poor roads. In the last six years of the NDA-II Government under PM Modi, the country has seen seminal growth in this sector – something we hadn’t seen in the last 20 years. It was AB Vajpayee’s Government that first took up the initiative to expressly build roads and strengthen connectivity across the country in a big way. During his tenure, we came across the concept of Golden Quadrangle among other things and the process to connect the four metro cities of the country with a seamless expressway was started in a big way.

 

This one step took us ahead by light years and upped the pace of overall development. This ambitious project paved the way for a flurry of other such initiatives and a plethora of important road networks were laid to further join the length and breadth of the country. PM Modi carried forward the same process and with the able leadership and vision of Nitin Gadkari, the dreams turned into fruition in no time. Today, we can boast of one of the best and most extensive road networks in the world. They are safe, well facilitated and smooth carriageways that are on par with global standards. Movement of people and goods have increased many times due to these roads and last-mile delivery of goods and services has brought the remotest areas of the country into the mainstream, bringing the benefits of development to the doorsteps of millions of people hitherto unserved.

 

The importance of roads was never realised by the previous dispensations and despite some work in other fields, road infrastructure was one area which was always a patchy job done without any long-term vision linked to growth. Technology was obsolete and the roads were undulating, unpredictable and unscientifically built that enhanced chances of accidents. It was, in fact, never seen as a possible growth engine, despite the fact that road is one single most important catalyst for development. This is one reason why most advanced nations have their primary focus set on establishing a strong communication network by virtue of roads and railways. No developed nation has poor road and rail connectivity- simply because growth and bad roads can’t exist together. This is what the Government realised early and started work on that on a war footing because we are already late to catch the bus and if we are not up and going at this time of opportunity, we will end up losers.

 

No big ticket investments will come to India if our infrastructure is shabby. Lack of investments and industries would mean lesser job opportunities and less liquidity in the economy, with lesser expendable income with the people. This will lead us into a vicious cycle of lesser demand and lesser supply and a bleak market outlook — like the era of the constrictive 80s which we had a tough time shrugging off. We have to propel out of the rut and it has been only the urgency shown by Gadkari and PM Modi in recovering lost ground that we have seen such rapid expansion of roads in just 6 years – something which was not happening for the last 60 years after Independence. But this is no time to sit on our laurels and there is much to be done still to bring all corners of the country under the ambit of good infrastructure. Corruption has to be weeded out, land acquisitions and compensation models, which often delay projects, have to be sorted out by States to support the Centre’s vision.

 

Tenders must be fair and roadblocks like funding shortage must be removed to encourage builders and investors. Courts also must take up litigations related to development roadblocks on priority and sort out the issues for early approval and completion of arterial roads and such major projects related to infra boost. It is a collective and cooperative effort that all State Governments must take seriously and expeditiously with cooperation from the Centre. We are close to being the best. We have to be better than the best. We need to have the best road and rail layout, best clean energy generation and power distribution model, best green belts and cleanest water bodies, best hospitals and schools. By the way, we have made huge strides in space research and science, in the medical sector, tourism and software and digital revolution and green revolution. We are one of the leading producers of milk, wheat, rice and tea and several minerals. If we do a little more, together, no one can stop us from being the most powerful nation on the planet.