No real Covid impact on highway projects, says Nitin Gadkari

The coronavirus disease pandemic has not had an impact on the progress of any national highways work, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Friday, adding that the road transport and highways ministry continued awarding new projects through the public health crisis. The minister for road transport & highways, and micro, small & medium enterprises also said that the government plans to increase the contribution of MSMEs to the Indian economy from 30% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to 40% in five years.

Giving details of proactive measures taken by the government to infuse adequate liquidity into construction firms, and providing amenities to labourers, Gadkari said at the HT Summit that “there is no impact of Covid on our projects” and cited as examples several ongoing construction activities across the country. Gadkari said that ensuring working capital requirement to the contractor was important, particularly for road construction. “This has been streamlined by re-scheduling and fast-tracking payment cycle, thereby releasing more than Rs 8,000 crore,” he said.

He said that the MSME sector was adversely hit by Covid-19 and a subsequent lockdown, but the government’s stimulus package helped it tremendously to bounce back. He said support to MSMEs was ongoing and the government was helping smaller units, particularly in rural, tribal and agriculture sectors. “We are encouraging village industry,” he said, adding that the present turnover of the village industry was Rs 80,000 crore and the target was to make it Rs5 lakh crore in two years.