March 21, 2022
Aparupa Poddar speaks on Demands for Grants for Road Transport and Highways Ministry for 2022-23
Sir, thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak on the discussion on the Demands for Grants of the Ministry
of Road Transport and Highways. I would begin my speech with a quote by the former British Prime Minister,
MargaretThatcher.Shehassaid,“YouandIcomebyroadorrail, but economists travel on infrastructure.”Whenever we talk about the word,‘infrastructure’,the first few words that come to our minds are, road, highways, and transport. Today we are discussing the Demands for Grants of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. India has the second largest road network in the world with about 63.72 lakh kilometres. It is consisting of National Highways, Expressways, State Highways, major district roads, other district roads and village roads, out of which we have 1.41 lakh kilometres of National Highways. The total expenditure of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for
the year, 2022-23 is estimated at Rs.1,99,108 crore which is nearly Rs.68,000 crore more than the revised expenditure of 2021-22. The allocations have increased and some major announcements have also been made, which is a good initiative. But I have certain questions and suggestions on which I would want to know from the Ministry. The Government has sanctioned an Expressway between Varanasi and Kolkata under the Bharatmala Project Phase-II, and it will pass through Khanakul Assembly in Hooghly district which falls under my Parliamentary Constituency,
Arambagh. I request the Minister to ensure that this work is completed in a timebound manner, and allocation of funds should be made so that there is no issue for the completion of this project because Khanakul is a flood-prone area. If this project happens to materialise, many bridges will also be built up which will provide very good connectivity from Khanakul to Kolkata also. A large number of National Highways across the country have dangerous potholes and they need to be maintained in a better state. I would request the Minister to allocate some part of the maintenance budget to thoroughly monitor the vast network of National Highways across the country to be able to carry out the repair work of potholes in time, which will enable prevention of any possible accidents due to the poor state of NHs There is a need for a research fund not only to study road construction techniques and materials utilized but also to study and develop better mechanisms to monitor the quality of roads across the vast NH networks in the country. One of the major challenges, while travelling on highways, is the absence of proper signs and directions for necessary amenities like toilet for women, police station, trauma care centre, and hospital. I would again suggest to the Minister to include this as a mandatory clause for the contractors while constructing a highway so that there should be proper signs and directions containing information about the nearby police station, hospital, and trauma care centre. This is required because if any untoward incident occurs, the people can get in touch with the local administration. This is a very important point. The total manpower working in NHAI,
including both regular officials and those on deputation, as on 30th August, 2021 is just 1,189 as against the total sanctioned strength of 1,882. The Standing Committee on Transport has mentioned that given the huge financial allocation made to the NHAI each year, the Ministry should ensure sufficient manpower is in place so as to make optimal utilization of the available funds. I request the Ministry to have a comprehensive review of the existing Recruitment Rules of NHAI, and the same may be finalised at the earliest. Further, sincere efforts may be made to ensure that all the vacancies presently lying unfilled in NHAI are filled up at the earliest.There is a huge role to be played by good road connectivity in the economic growth of the country. The Ministry should request the Reserve Bank of India to grant ‘priority sector’ tag to the road infrastructure sector in order to encourage financial institutions and banks to lend higher amounts of money to supplement maintenance and growth of the national highway network in the country. The last point that I would like to make is about the use of CSR fund. The Ministry should reach out to the private sector with a proposal to invest their CSR fund into road safety initiatives such as training of drivers, road safety awareness drives, developing infrastructure to quickly reach out to the road
accident victims,etc. This will save many lives across the country. With these suggestions, I conclude. Thank you.
