New Delhi, June 18: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari proposed setting up of Innovation Bank for new ideas, research findings and technologies to focus on 'quality' in infrastructure development.
Virtually addressing the inaugural function of 222nd Mid-Term Council Meeting of the Indian Roads Congress (IRC), he said new initiatives are expected from IRC, Innovation should be the focus area for all Engineers.
He said IRC should develop a World-class state-of-art laboratory with the help of IITs and global institutions in the world, according to a release by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Gadkari said infrastructure development has an important role in fulfilling the vision PM Narendra Modi to make India a 5 trillion-dollar economy and road infrastructure is directly linked to the prosperity of that region. He said road infrastructure connects people, culture and society and brings prosperity through socio-economic development.
The minister said in the last 8 years, the length of National Highways has gone up by more than 50 per cent from 91,000 km in 2014 to about 1.47 Lakh km now. He said our government is dedicatedly working towards expanding the National Highway network to 2 lakh kilometres by 2025. In the last 8 years, our team has created multiple world records, he added.