Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari today chaired a Group on Infrastructure meeting in New Delhi. The meeting considered several issues, in respect of pending infrastructure projects, for resolution. Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Gen V K Singh participated in the meeting. A major issue raised in the meeting pertained to top outstanding forest clearance for 187 highway projects. It was stressed that level crossings on National Highways need to be removed, as they constitute major accident spots. During the meeting, it was pointed out that while their designs had been approved at 167 locations, but the work has not yet started.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Gadkari expressed his satisfaction over progress on outstanding issues by way of meetings between senior level officers of various ministries. The Minister said, he always feels that instead of wasting time and energy on written communications, it is always worthy to sit together and thrash out issues before each other.
During the meeting, Mr Javadekar was requested to direct the Forest officers posted in States to follow and implement the circulars and orders issued by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Special High Powered committees on forest issues can be conducted as is being done in Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh. It was felt that this step will remove many hindrances in the way of infrastructure projects, which will save both time and money.
During the meeting, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal requested Mr Gadkari to guide the Group on Infrastructure on the steps to improve citizen’s cause. He said, Railway and Highway projects should ideally run parallel to each other and together these two bodies can build a number of projects.
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