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Gadkari's mega mobility plan: Electric buses, ropeways on fast track
In an interview with PTI, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways said India's transport sector is undergoing a major transition, with initiatives like tree bank, mobile-based driving tests, and flex-fuel engines by 11 leading automakers in the pipeline.
Also on the agenda are plans to upgrade 25,000 km of two-lane highways to four lanes, establish an electric mass rapid transport network across major routes and scale up road construction to 100 km per day.
'We are driving innovation. A revolution in mass mobility is underway,' Gadkari said. 'Work is progressing at a war footing to transform how India travels, with a focus not just on metropolises but also on remote, inaccessible rural areas. We're building ropeways, cable cars and funicular railways across 360 locations, including Kedarnath. Work has already started on 60 of these projects,' he said.
Funicular railways are a system that combines elevator and railway technologies to efficiently transport people and goods up and down inclines. These are particularly useful in mountainous or hilly areas.
Gadkari said the cost of these projects ranges from ₹200 crore to ₹5,000 crore and once completed, they will change the face of India.
The minister added that improved road infrastructure will not only boost the economy but will also help in propelling growth and creating jobs.
'I am more than confident that in a year's time, our highways will match the standard and quality of US roads that I have been emphasising,' he said, adding that days are not far off when metropolises will have cable-run buses, electric rapid mass transport buses with aeroplane-like facilities.
Gadkari said pilot projects like Metrino pod taxis, hyperloop systems, and pillar-based mass rapid transport are in the pipeline for cities like Delhi and Bengaluru.
'Technology and investors are both coming in. It will be a revolution,' he said.
The minister said, 'Eleven companies, including Tata, Toyota, Hyundai and Mahindra, have agreed to build flex-fuel engine vehicles that will reduce dependence on fuel imports as well as fossil fuel." Flex-fuel vehicles are equipped with internal combustion engines that can operate on more than one fuel. They are primarily meant to run on ethanol and methanol or a blend of biofuels and on conventional fuels such as petrol or diesel.
Gadkari said India is working on 25,000 km of road upgrades for converting two-lane roads into four-lanes and 'we plan to build 100 km of roads per day – this is our target, not a declaration,' he clarified.
The length of national highways was 91,287 km in 2013-14 and there has been an increase of about 60 per cent in the length of NHs to 1,46,204 km, he said.
The length of National High-Speed Corridors (HSC) has expanded from 93 km in 2014 to 2,474 km at present, he said.
New technologies, like precast construction, three-ft road barriers, and AI-based road safety tools, including drones and camera monitoring systems, are being introduced to boost efficiency and safety.
'We plan to plant 20–25 crore trees along highways, with an aim to transplant old trees and replant five for every one cut.' Talks for a tree bank are in advanced stages with the Ministry of Environment and once a go-ahead is received, full-fledged work will start, the minister said.
Speaking about electric rapid transport, Gadkari said a tender has been floated for a 135-seater electric bus in Nagpur as a pilot project.
The bus will feature executive-class seating, air-conditioning, and airline-grade amenities, capable of running at speeds of 120–125 km/hr.
It will recharge in 30–40 minutes at designated stops and is expected to cost 30 per cent less than traditional diesel buses while offering significantly lower emissions, he said.
'Once the trial is successful, we plan to introduce similar buses pan-India, including on routes like Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Dehradun, Delhi-Meerut, Delhi-Jaipur, Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Aurangabad and Bangalore-Chennai, among others," he added.
As many as 670 roadside amenities have already been approved, aimed at providing world-class facilities for both travellers and drivers across national highways, he said.
The minister said India's transport sector contributes nearly 40 per cent to the country's air pollution, and emphasised that green mobility initiatives will not only help curb emissions but also significantly reduce the nation's annual fuel import bill of around ₹22 trillion.
He further claimed that improved road infrastructure will help bring down logistics costs from 14 per cent of GDP to 9 per cent by the end of the year, enhancing overall economic efficiency.
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Time of India
28 minutes ago
- Time of India
Toll for two-lane highways may be halved during expansion phase
In yet another move to rationalise tolling on national highways (NHs), the road transport ministry has proposed to halve the toll during the expansion of 10-metre-wide two-lane highways with paved shoulders to four-lane highways. This has been proposed since commuters don't get the desired service while construction work is underway on such stretches, with the highway width available for use being reduced. At present, the user fee for such stretches is 60% of the normal toll for NHs, even during expansion phase, as they are narrow highways without dividers. If the proposal goes through and gets the green signal from the finance ministry, the user fee will go down to only 30% of normal toll during the construction phase. In the case of widening of four-lane highways to six lanes or expansion of six-lane highways to eight lanes, the chargeable toll is capped at 75% of the normal rate during the construction phase. This is also because commuters don't get the desired service while work is underway on such stretches. This has also been a major issue, with there even being instances of courts taking note of the anomaly. The proposal to give relief to commuters using two-lane NHs with paved shoulders gains importance considering road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has announced a plan to convert 25,000 km of two-lane highways into four-lane highways with an investment of Rs 10 lakh crore in the next two years. The govt will focus over the next decade on the expansion of two-lane and two-lane with paved shoulders NH stretches, as nearly 80,000 km out of total 1.46-lakh-km length of NHs fall under this category. Earlier, to provide relief to commuters, govt had announced the Rs-3,000 annual toll pass scheme, which will allow private vehicles to cross 200 toll plazas annually. More recently, it notified a new rule to reduce the toll rate by up to 50% for structures such as bridges, tunnels, flyovers and elevated sections on highways, which will benefit commercial and heavy vehicles, particularly on sections that have more such structures.
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First Post
30 minutes ago
- First Post
Beyond Nimisha Priya: 10,000 Indians in foreign jails, 49 facing death sentence
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The case of Nimisha Priya: A stark example Among the most urgent cases is that of Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Kerala sentenced to death in Yemen for the 2017 murder of her Yemeni business partner, Talal Abdo Mahdi. After reportedly drugging Mahdi to retrieve her passport, which he had seized, the situation escalated fatally. Priya, along with a Yemeni accomplice, allegedly dismembered the body and hid it in a water tank, the PTI reported. Convicted in a trial conducted under Yemen's Sharia law amid a brutal civil war, her appeal was rejected in 2023, and execution is scheduled for July 16, 2025. The Indian government has admitted its hands are tied due to the lack of diplomatic relations with the Houthi-controlled Yemeni administration. Despite efforts including informal negotiations and engaging influential locals, the situation remains grim. 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It's disproportionate in the Gulf The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which host large Indian migrant populations, particularly blue-collar workers, see a disproportionately high number of legal cases involving Indians. The UAE alone has over 2,500 Indian prisoners, with 25 on death row, the highest among all foreign nations, the MEA said. While the UAE government does not publicly release execution data, Indian authorities rely on informal channels to track developments. Often, these legal issues arise from labour disputes, identity theft, smuggling or violent altercations under stressful working conditions. In some cases, convictions have stemmed from being at the wrong place at the wrong time or falling into the trap of illegal networks. Execution: Malaysia to Saudi Arabia Between 2023 and 2024, multiple Indians were executed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Malaysia, with at least three executions reported in each of the first two nations in 2024 alone. 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Time of India
38 minutes ago
- Time of India
India aiming to emerge as global maritime hub, says Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal
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