"Exploring Ways To Restart Road Projects Amid Lockdown": Nitin Gadkari

The government is seeking ways to resume construction of highways and arterial roads in districts least impacted by the coronavirus outbreak as it charts out a plan to revive Asia's third-largest economy.

Builders were constructing 31 kilometers (19.3 miles) of roads a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the lockdown starting March 25. The government plans to spend $12 billion to build 15,500 km of highways in the new fiscal year started April 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in her budget speech on Feb. 1.

"We need to see if there's a way to start work to ensure employment for at least a section of daily wage workers," Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for roads and small and medium industries said in an interview. "If businesses and contractors can provide sanitizers, masks and ensure social distancing, we could see if at least some activity can be restarted."

PM Modi's administration faces the tough choice of lifting the lockdown to sustain livelihood of millions who have little to eat, or keep the restrictions in place to check the spread of the pandemic. More than 450 million informal sector workers who depend on daily wages as low as $4 are without a livelihood for nearly three weeks when the restrictions were imposed.

Already, local administrations in states of Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have begun permitting road construction and repair work with caveats, the Economic Times reported. The federal government is considering a proposal to restart units in labor-intensive sectors such as textiles, automobiles, steel, defense and electronic manufacturing at 25% capacity in a single shift, provided they follow proper safety precautions, according to another news report.

More than 9,000 Indians have been infected by the virus that has caused over 300 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. PM Modi's administration is poised to extend the lockout that is scheduled to end on Tuesday to contain infections.

The government is consulting states to restart small businesses working with tribal areas in India's poorest 115 districts, Gadkari said. Authorities have also sought help from industry associations and labor unions in areas where there could be manpower shortages as thousands of migrant workers are either housed in camps or have relocated to their homes in rural areas, he said.