Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Road Transport &
Highways
19-August-2014 16:34 IST
The
government today said that it will introduce Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill in
the next session of Parliament to end malpractices in Regional Transport
Offices (RTOs) across the country. Union Minister for Road Transport and
Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari said here that the Amendment Bill is being made,
based on the best practices of developed countries like USA, Canada, Singapore,
Japan, Germany and the UK. He said, the Motor Vehicles Act has become obsolete
and it needs to be changed for ending corruption in RTO offices. He said, the
transport department will be linked to e-governance for bringing total
transparency and easy and hassle-free services to the people.
Addressing
the Indian Road Congress meeting, Shri Gadkari said that he had committed to
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi that Road Transport, Shipping and Inland
Waterways will yield Two Percent extra to the GDP of the country. He said that
the Highways sector is passing through a bad phase and 19 out of 51 road
projects had to be dropped for different reasons. He also lamented that not a
single kilometre of highway network could be added in the month of July and
pulled up officials and other stake holders to speed up the process to achieve
the target of building 30 kms of highways per day in the next two years.
Admitting that impediments like land acquisition bill, environmental clearances
and Defence and Railways land had stalled many projects, the Minister informed
that upto 80 percent of the projects stuck for environment and forest
clearances have been solved and land acquisition process and clearances from
Railways and Defence are being expedited. Shri Gadkari urged the Indian Roads
Congress to concentrate on Research and Development and Designing as per the
global standards. He said, this is the right time for the road sector and there
will be no dearth of resources including foreign funding but all should focus
on time-bound completion of projects.
