Bhubaneswar: Union Road Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari Wednesday claimed that his ministry had taken special care of Odisha and a large number of projects from his ministry have been sanctioned in the last five years.
Gadkari was speaking at a meeting of intellectuals from the state. He also flagged off a number of vans which will travel through the state and spread the message of works done by the ruling NDA government at the Centre in the last five years besides seeking response from the electorate for formulating the party manifesto in the days to come.
Gadkari said, “In the last five years, from my ministry itself, projects worth `2.5 lakh crore had been sanctioned for Odisha. Under the UPA government, road construction was done at an average of 2kms/day while under our rule we have done road construction at the pace of 28kms/day.”
The minister also claimed his ministry has been working hard to expand the national waterways through the rivers crossing over Odisha to reduce logistic costs on goods transport. “In Odisha we are working on Brahmani river and some other rivers to facilitate water-ways which could potentially reduce the higher logistic costs incurred for transport of goods in the country. Several raw materials from Odisha could then be easily transported resulting in better business and employment in the state.”
The minister also claimed that they are working towards using bio-fuels derived from plants like Jatropa in Odisha to run aircraft and other vehicles rather than depending on the costly fuels available in the market. “We want to utilise oils from bio-fuel plants like Jatropa in Odisha to run aeroplanes. We have done this recently and are still working on it.”
During his speech here, the minister boasted about schemes like Jan Dhan Yojana, Ayushman Bharat, Rural Electrification and Ujjwala and talked about their benefits reaching crores of beneficiaries in the state.
