Precast material helped save Rs.5,000cr in building Zoji La Tunnel
The Mumbai Municipal Corporation is working on Rs.6,000 crore fully cemented roads, the initial cost of which may be high, but it will be maintenance-free for 25 years, says Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.
Stressing on the need to building a higher-grade infrastructure, he also cited how the cost of the 14.2 km Zoji La Tunnel has been reduced by nearly Rs.5,000 crores through pre-cast materials and modern tunnelling equipment.
Gadkari also underlined the importance of bitumen and cement topping in road construction to ensure infrastructure longevity.
Inaugurating the 2-day National Conference ‘MANTHAN – Idea to Action’ on 8 Sept 2022, the Minister underscored the importance of an integrated approach with multi-modal transportation.
“There is a need for an integrated approach where waterways, railways and airports are interlinked, and logistics parks would play a critical role,” he said.
Further, Gadkari assured that if the state governments provide land, his Ministry will facilitate in construction of logistics parks.
But the construction cost has to be reduced while the quality of construction has to improve substantially.
Talking about a sustainable approach, Gadkari said his Ministry, along with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, has come up with a ‘Tree Bank’ project wherein the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will be planting trees along the highways, thus expanding the green coverage.
The Ministry has bought over 80 lakh trees, and this should help the environment with the trees absorbing carbon dioxide. As a result, India’s ranking in green coverage has already gone up.
Calling for collaboration between States and the Centre, the Minister said only six states had signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the Rs.16,000 crore remotely operated vehicles project. The States need to take ownership as it will ultimately benefit them.
The ‘Manthan’ is a platform that will deliberate and visualise the future of road transport. In addition, it will initiate collaboration between the government and the industry. fiinews.com
