Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project is expected to be completed by March 2023. During this, he called the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) a gold mine.
New Delhi. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that after the commencement of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, the Central Government will get Rs 1,000 crore to 1,500 crore every month from paying toll tax. Earning up to Rs. He expressed hope that this expressway will be operational by the year 2023. It is being built under the first phase of Bharat Mala project. Not only this, Gadkari called the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) a gold mine.
‘Annual toll income will be 1.40 lakh crore’
Union Minister Gadkari recently completed a long journey to review the progress of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. He said that the annual toll income of NHAI will increase to Rs 1.40 lakh crore in the next five years. Right now it is at Rs 40,000 crore level. The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will pass through four states apart from the National Capital Region. This expressway will be of 8 lanes, which will pass through Delhi-Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. With this, the travel time between the national capital and the country’s financial capital will be reduced to 12 hours from the current 24 hours.
‘NHAI is not in the debt trap, it is a gold mine’
NHAI is currently facing a lot of debt burden. Gadkari said that the nodal agency got a triple A (AAA) rating. All his road projects are productive. He said that the authority is not in the debt trap. NHAI is a gold mine. In the next five years, NHAI’s toll income will reach Rs 1.40 lakh crore annually, which is currently only Rs 40,000 crore. Recently, Nitin Gadkari told in the Rajya Sabha that the total debt of NHAI has increased to Rs 3,06,704 crore by the end of March 2021. It was Rs 74,742 crore at the end of March 2017.
