Nitin Gadkari’s jibe at poor quality roads, says ‘frequent maintenance keeps everyone happy’ | India News

NEW DELHI: Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday took a swipe at the trend of frequent maintenance and relaying of roads due to bad quality of construction. He said frequent maintenance brings “a lot of satisfaction” to everyone, including politicians, officers and contractors for the reason known to all in a remark tinged with sarcasm.
“Maintenance is a subject that makes everyone — politicians to officials and contractors — happy. Frequent maintenance work brings a lot of satisfaction, though the public is the only loser. Contractors get upset when decisions are taken for durable roads as they feel they will lose their business,” Gadkari said while addressing an event organised by industry body, FICCI.
Frequent digging up roads after construction is a normal practice across cities.

The minister said it’s high time to find solutions to build durable and maintenance free roads by adopting new technologies and materials. He said there is a plan to build roads using 8-inch white topping and rubberised bitumen for surfacing. “Such roads can be durable for 25 years and will hardly need any maintenance,” Gadkari said.

While speaking at another event later in the day, the minister also spoke about how once he had suggested to officials to put their names at project sites so that people come to know who is responsible for the “work quality”. “Once, on a lighter vein, I had suggested to officials that their names should be displayed. Why should people burn my effigies only? People should also know who is responsible,” he said.

At the FICCI summit, Gadkari also said he has set the target to get rid of petrol and diesel with alternative fuels. He said, “I have decided that we will put an end to the use of diesel and petrol. It’s difficult, but we can do it by going electric, using LNGbio-ethanol, methanol and hydrogen.”