Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, who is often been lauded on social media for improvising the road infrastructure in the country, has scrapped the latest rumour about his political career.
Rumours were rife that Gadkari was quitting politics. However, the Nagpur MP has dismissed all these rumours.
"I have no intention of retiring from politics," the senior BJP leader said while speaking to media in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri.
Gadkari made the statement while referring to a media report.
"The media must uphold responsible journalism in their reporting on this matter," he added.
Yesterday, Gadkari conducted an aerial inspection of the construction work of the Mumbai-Goa highway. The minister said that the construction work of Mumbai-Goa National Highway No 66 would be completed by December 2023 and the road will be open for traffic in January 2024.
He further said that the Mumbai-Goa highway has been divided into 10 packages. Out of these, two packages (P-9, P-10) in the Sindhudurg district are almost 99% complete, according to an official release by the union transport ministry.
There are a total of five packages in the Ratnagiri district and 92% and 98% work of two of these packages (P-4, P-8) has been completed respectively.
The rest of the work is in progress. The delayed works for two packages (P-6, P-7) have been resumed by appointing a new contractor, informed the Minister.
"Out of the three packages in the Raigad district, two packages (P-2, P-3) have been completed up to 93% and 82% respectively. More than half of the work on the package (P-1) has been completed and the remaining work will be completed soon," he added.
The Road Transport and Highways Minister further said that land acquisition and environmental clearances for the Panvel-Indapur phase had delayed the work on the Mumbai-Goa National Highway.
He said that now all these hurdles have been cleared and the environmental issue is being taken care of by removing the flyover in the Karnala sanctuary area.
The Minister informed that the construction work in Goa of the Mumbai-Goa National Highway has been completed. The Mumbai-Goa National Highway is a highway connecting major tourist destinations in Konkan. This will boost tourism development. As there is a road connecting major industrial areas, industrial development will also get a boost, said the Minister.
The minister also announced three new projects worth ₹15,000 crores. These include the ₹1,200 crore Kalamboli Junction project, the ₹1,200 crore Pagode Junction Chowk to Greenfield Highway project, and the ₹13,000 crore Morbe - Karanjade highway connecting Delhi via JNPA. The work on these projects will start soon.
On Thursday Gadkari laid the foundation stone of three national highway projects worth ₹414.68 crores and 63,900 km long at Palaspe village in Raigad district.
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