New Delhi: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said infrastructure development is very important for India, and his target is to accelerate the pace of highway construction in the country to 100 km per day. Gadkari asserted that in the next 18 months, India’s road infrastructure will be better than that of the United States of America.

“Infrastructure development is very important for India…I am working to accelerate the pace of highway construction in the country to 100 km per day,” he said. The road transport and highways minister said that the highways ministry will construct 25,000 km two and four-lane highways in coming years. “There is no dearth of money for the highways projects,” Gadkari said.

The pace of highway construction in the country touched a record of 37 km per day in 2020-21. The highways ministry constructed 10,237 kilometres in 2019-20, 13,435 kilometres in 2020-21, 10,457 kilometres in 2021-22, 10,331 kilometres in 2022-23 and 12,349 kilometres in 2023-24.

The minister also said the Union government is working on infrastructure projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore to transform Delhi.