This is what India—which has a road network spanning a total of 5.89 million km and counting—appears to be doing at this juncture; the penetration of all these elements is being ensured to be taken as the priority and if we talk of roads, then the Government is targeting to build at least 40 km of national highway per day while as of now, the direction and the focus of the Government seem pragmatic, progressive and growth-oriented because, by the end of this year, the road sector in the country is set to witness remarkable changes as building more stretches of national highways are planned apart from the completion and approval of various other projects.
On how better roads ensure the country’s growth, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, Nitin Gadkari recently quoted former American President J.F. Kennedy, having said: “American roads are not good because America is rich, but America is rich because American roads are good.” In this context, it won’t be out of place to state that over time, the better and more effective roads have become the benchmark for India’s infrastructure development and upgradation, while the same has witnessed a total transformation after the Modi-led Government rose to power which has now made the new integrated infrastructure program the backbone of the creation, development of road network across the country.
While the infrastructure development and creation have been setting new records in the country, there is, at the back of it, a full-fledged vertical ensuring necessary planning, research, and monitoring at the back and that is NITI Aayog’s Infrastructure-Connectivity, aiming at creating a transport system: connected and convenient. The trajectory indicates that there is going to be no stopping the Government from putting in place a further lengthy and well-connected network of highways in the country and by that, aiming to bring about a revolution in the transport and other allied sectors, and through that, the overall economic growth of the country. Days ahead will prove how far the country can go and how well it is going to affect the common lives, yearning for more growth and development because in the end, what matters is a common man.
