Reported By: Nivedita Singh
News18.com
Last Updated: March 19, 2024, 18:42 IST
New Delhi, India
Senior BJP leader and union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari speaks at Network18’s Rising Bharat Summit 2024 on Tuesday. (Image/News18)
When we talk about union minister Nitin Gadkari, the things that come to our minds are roads, tunnels, highways, and expressways. While the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader is known for all these works in the last 10 years as minister, they may not be on his list of favourites. Ushering in electric rickshaws and saving over a crore people from physical exploitation takes the first position in his heart.
Gadkari, while speaking at the Rising Bharat Summit 2024 in New Delhi on Tuesday, said that when he took charge back in 2014, over a crore rickshaw drivers were pulling other humans manually.
“When I became a minister in 2014, at least one crore people were pulling other humans manually on cycle or hand rickshaws. I brought the mechanised e-rickshaw. Now I am happy that one crore people were saved from being exploited through such practices. They are running e-carts and e-rickshaws. I have made a lot of express highways, roads, and tunnels but this work is my favourite," he said.
The union minister also said that in the last ten years, he has awarded projects worth Rs 50 lakh crore to improve roads in India.
He said that the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) is currently building 36 green expressways and tunnels worth Rs 2 lakh crore spread over 284 km are also being constructed. As many as 260 ropeway projects are also underway.
It is important to note that the E-rickshaw Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in 2015. After that, several cities across India saw a flood of these e-rickshaws on the streets for small distances and last-mile connectivity.
Being battery operated, these are not just environment friendly but have eased the load of manual rickshaw pullers who used to face health problems because of their daily exertion.
The government also provided low-interest loans to rickshaw pullers from poor, backward, and minority communities to buy e-rickshaws.
