New Delhi: Union minister Nitin Gadkari, who has been handling the road transport portfolio since the first term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, today said the deterioration of new roads built is due to the abnormal monsoons the country has been witnessing. In an exclusive interview with NDTV, he also said the trouble in the Himalayan region is because of the terrain and not the multi-lane highways. The government's solution, he said, could be tunnels.
Talking about the situation in the hills, Mr Gadkari, in an exclusive interview to NDTV, said, "When the cloudburst happened many people died, especially in Uttarakhand. Now we have a new plan, under which we have brought in experts from Switzerland. We are thinking, where all this happens, we should build tunnels".
But there too, is a hitch, he indicated: "Tunnels are expensive. So, there are challenges."
In the rest of the country, while roads are being built at a breakneck pace, many have claimed there is also evidence that the quality is suffering. Asked about the worsening situation of the roads, Mr Gadkari pointed to the monsoon.
"We are having cloudbursts and floods. So it is not the roads that are badly built but rather the rains. Repairs are happening everywhere and now we have taken another decision".
The bitumen surface of roads do not last in rains, he said. "So we will test their surface and if possible, we will put 8-inch white topping in concrete," he added.
But then there are problems everywhere, he said.
"In the Himalayas, we are having landslides. The geology is different everywhere.... The geology in the Himalayas is complicated. Still, we will use the best available technology. We have identified landslide-prone spots the way we identified black spots. And we are trying to improve that,' he said.
There was a statutory warning too - that in the end, nature prevails. "No matter how hard we try, we fall short somewhere," the minister said. "But even so, we are making the best possible effort of help people reach safely".
Asked if the blockages on the highways in the Char Dham project are not due not multi-lane expressways, Mr Gadkari said it was not correct. There are no six-lane highways in the first place.
"You tell me, our Char Dham routes go till China border. If something happens tomorrow, we have to take trucks and tanks, how are we going to do it?" he added, remarking that for the security of the nation, one has to keep the strategic angle in mind also.