Addressing a program, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that India’s road network will be better than America in the next two years. He said, I don’t think there is any problem in the road area. The changes that will come this year and next year will be so important that earlier I was saying that our highway network will be like America, but now I am saying that in the next two years our highway network will be better than America.
The Union Minister said that India would overtake the US in terms of adoption and production in the next five years. The minister also talked about the schemes of the ministry and said that travel time between cities like Delhi, Dehradun, Jaipur and Bengaluru will be reduced considerably.
“Transport manufacturer prioritizes quality”
When asked about Tesla’s entry into India, Nitin Gadkari said, “This is an open market, anyone who is capable can come, produce and compete on prices.” He also said that transport manufacturers in the country prioritize the price rather than the price. He is confident that vehicle manufacturers will make good vehicles and make them available at competitive prices.
Nitin Gadkari also reiterated that he is committed to reducing the logistics cost to a single digit, which will strengthen India’s global competitiveness. Currently the country’s logistics cost is around 14-16 percent. He also said that he has targeted to build 60 km of roads per day.
“Lithium-ion battery prices fall”
Nitin Gadkari said that the implementation of the vehicle scraping policy may reduce the prices of auto parts by up to 30 per cent, which will reduce the prices of vehicles and benefit consumers. He also said that the government is taking several steps to improve charging infrastructure on cities and highways, which will increase demand for electric vehicles.
Gadkari also stated that a huge reserves of lithium have been discovered in Jammu and Kashmir, which is equal to 6 percent of the total lithium reserves in the world and can produce millions of lithium-ion batteries. He also praised the Indian automobile industry, which is currently growing at a good speed and has now become the third largest automobile industry in the world, leaving behind Japan.
