His Way, The Highway

From bridges, tunnels and expressways to e-rickshaws and flex-fuel vehicles, Nitin Gadkari has been busy delivering on his promises in the past nine years. As elections draw near, the BJP is relying as much on Gadkari's achievements as on Modi's popularity

- PRATUL SHARMA

India is on the move a bit faster. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus on boosting infrastructure as an engine of growth, the country added more than 50,000 lane kilometres (length of each new lane built) to its highway system in the past nine years.

New expressways are being built and all-weather tunnels drilled in the Himalayas. Last year, vehicle sales set a record of 42.5 lakh units, and India overtook Japan to become the world’s third largest auto market. The road to attaining the number one position in building infrastructure is being paved with ambition.

“In the next five years, Indian roads will rival America’s,” Nitin Gadkari, minister of road transport and highways, told THE WEEK. As Modi’s man tasked with transforming the country’s highway network, Gadkari takes cues from what US president John F. Kennedy said: that America’s roads are not good because it is rich, America is rich because its roads are good. The statement is displayed in his Transport Bhavan office, and he repeats it often at public forums. India, he says, recently pipped China to have the world’s second largest road network after the US.

Gadkari, 66, is the only minister to have held the same portfolio since Modi came to power in 2014. In fact, when Modi was holding talks for forming his first cabinet, he reportedly asked Gadkari to pick a portfolio. Gadkari apparently insisted on holding the ‘less attractive’ road transport and highways ministry, even though he was among the top four leaders who could be part of the powerful cabinet committee on security (comprising the prime minister and the defence, home and finance ministers).