The Hindu : National : Good roads needed for nation's progress: Vajpayee

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Thursday, Feb 24, 2005

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Good roads needed for nation's progress: Vajpayee

By Our Special Correspondent

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

SHOWS CONCERN: Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee with Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray while releasing a book in Mumbai on Wednesday.

MUMBAI, FEB. 23. The former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, today called for a national campaign for construction and maintenance of roads, essential for the country's development and prosperity.

"Why aren't we getting angry at a pothole? Why don't we raise questions about traffic jams?" Mr. Vajpayee asked. He stressed the need to understand the high cost of bad roads to the economy in terms of time, energy and opportunity losses. He was releasing a book, Path to Progress, by the former Maharashtra PWD Minister, Nitin Gadkari.

Mr. Gadkari is credited with the laying of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway for Rs. 1,800 crores against the lowest tender of Rs. 3,600 crores, in record time and without any kind of foreign collaboration despite the hilly terrain. The book discusses how he got the project implemented.

The Expressway became the forerunner of the Vajpayee Government's quadrilateral highway project linking the country's four metros. Mr. Vajpayee said his Government's road project was much admired in India and abroad. He said that there was no substitute for good roads, which were an investment in progress.

The Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, the former Lok Sabha Speaker, Manohar Joshi, the BJP general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, and the former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Narayan Rane, praised Mr. Gadkari.

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