While answering queries about toll charges on National Highways, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday (16 September) said the public must pay if they want good services like better roads.
The minister said that reduction in travel time and fuel savings would not make using expressways costly.
“The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will decrease travel time to 12 hours. A truck takes 48 hours to reach Mumbai from Delhi. But on the Expressway, it will take only 18 hours. So, a truck will be able to undertake more trips, which would in turn mean more business,” Gadkari said, reports The Indian Express.
“If you want to use an air-conditioned hall for conducting a marriage, you have to pay for it. Otherwise, you can arrange a marriage on a field as well,” the minister said.
“The future vision is that drones will be used and there will be helipads on this road for people and cargo. This would also facilitate air ambulances. We will make use of all such technology on this road,” Gadkari added.
The minister said that 15 projects worth Rs 53,000 crore had been sanctioned in the Delhi NCR region, in which the work is on for 14 projects. With the completion of these projects, he added that the air pollution in Delhi NCR would be drastically reduced, and the problem of traffic jams will also be resolved.