Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday came down hard on the Indian Road Congress (IRC), saying that the road quality in India had to improve substantially. He added that he was “annoyed” by the time taken by the authorities to take decisions and every stage.
He said that the IRC needed a permanent management and research institutions to make roads better. The minister also called for an independent, impartial, quality conscious approach. “We are ready to provide land in Delhi and give grants for infrastructure to develop IRC,” said Gadkari.
He said that the organisatation was working like a political party currently and it had to stop. “I will have world record of suspending people and fining contractors because I want good quality roads,” said the minister.
Further, Gadkari urged engineers to visit the Worli sea link in Mumbai to have a look at the quality. “Even after 26 years, expansion joints are perfect. Everywhere else there is a problem. Dwarka express highway is supposed to be a premium project, but the expansion joint was not perfect,” he said. The minister accused contractors and engineers of making compromises.
He said that he saw a lot of posts on social media complaining about bad roads. “We need to accept white topping technique to tackle heavy rains,” said Gadkari. The minister also urged the IRC to use new technology for better roads.
Further, the BJP MP said that India produced only 40-50 lakh tonne of Bitumen and imported 90 lakh tonne annually. He urged the IRC to blend plastic and waste rubber powder into bitumen to reduce costs.
Gadkari also said that there was a need to create more capital to improve road infrastructure, even though the budget provided for the projects was good.
