India has the second-largest network of roads after the United States of America
Shri Gadkari said that in the last nine years, the total length of National Highways in the country has increased by about 59 percent. India's network of 1.45 lakh km of national highways is now the second largest in the world after the United States.
Which was 91,287 km in 2013-14. Earlier China used to have the second-largest road network in the world. He also said that, in the last nine years, the 4-lane NH has almost doubled to 44,654 km from 18,371 km in 2013-14.
Apart from this, Shri Nitin Gadkari has said that 70 thousand crore rupees have been saved by using fast tags. This saving is due to the saving of fuel wasted waiting at the toll plaza.
The fast tag was made mandatory for vehicles from January 2021.
There has been a significant jump in toll collection since the introduction of FASTag. The collection of Rs 4770 crore in the year 2013-14 has increased to Rs 41 thousand 382 crore in the year 2022-23.
Shri Gadkari said that the government aims to increase toll revenue to Rs 1.30 lakh crore by 2030.
It is envisaged to eliminate waiting time completely by 2047. The use of FASTag at toll plazas helped in reducing the waiting time by 47 seconds.
Budget
Rs 10 lakh crore (3.3% of GDP) was allocated in the budget for the year 2023-24 for infrastructure, which is three times more than in the year 2019. The Ministry of Railways has
received the highest-ever allocation of Rs 2.4 lakh crore, which is almost nine times the allocation of 2013- 14. The budget allocation of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has increased by 36% and it has received Rs 2.7 lakh crore.
