Nitin Gadkari, the Union Road Transport Minister of India, issued a warning to contractors on Tuesday, saying that if they neglected to maintain certain sections of the highway, the government would put them on a blacklist and take severe action.
During his participation in the National Capital Region’s (NCR) massive plantation event at Duhai Nitin Gadkari stated, “Now we want to make a record of retiring non-performing officers and blacklisting contractors who fail to do good work and maintain stretches with them after we have created records in highway construction… We will not spare bad highway builders. We will ensure bank guarantees of such players are forfeited and they are not allowed to bid for new works.”
The Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari also added, “I used the EPE after a long time… The office bearers of associations are sitting here (the audience at the event), and roads should be well-maintained. I saw the road today, it’s very poorly maintained. We will not spare you.” The minister issued the warning after observing inadequate upkeep of the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), which he used to travel to Ghaziabad in order to take part in the event.
The Minister emphasized in his speech how quickly highways are being developed nationwide, especially in the NCR. He also emphasized the necessity of pro-environment laws and programs, like those pertaining to biofuel. According to him, as the transportation industry is one of the major contributors to air pollution, the Ministry of Transportation bears a greater obligation to take action to reduce it.
The minister said he and two junior ministers will travel on highway stretches, visit the roadside amenities and take action against non-performers. Gadkari said while the govt would reward the good performers, the bad ones would be “driven out of the system”.