Union Minister for Shipping, Highways and Road Transport Nitin Gadkari expressed hope that the government will increase its allocation towards the roads sector in the upcoming Budget.
“Funding is not a constraint as far as the roads sector is concerned. We are expecting about Rs 65,000 crore in the upcoming Budget for the sector, as against Rs 45,000 crore provided last year,” Gadkari said, while speaking at the Make in India Week, here on Tuesday.
Road-makers have raised concerns about funding for the sector, following increasing stress on the asset books of banks and with many of the companies which build roads exiting highway projects due to funding constraints.
As far as use of technology in the roads sector is concerned, the ministry plans to have e-tolling across all the toll plazas in the country.
“We have already fast-tracked the process of e-tolling system on toll plazas. E-tolling system on all the 360 toll plazas in the country will be operational by April this year,” Gadkari said.
Published 16 February 2016, 19:22 IST