Nitin Gadkari, the longest serving Minister for Road Transport and Highways, is the only minister in the Modi government to have held the same portfolio since 2014. Despite being one of the top four leaders of BJP, the 'Higway Man of India' apparently insisted on taking over the road transport portfolio when he joined the first Modi government. He retained the portfolio is 2019 and is likely to do the same now.
Gadkari who was the architect of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana started by the Vajpayee government is the pioneer behind the public-private partnership model. Even before that, he served as the public works minister in the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999.
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Gadkari is credited building more than 90,000 km of national highways and 30,000 km of new roads in the past decade. “In the next five years, Indian roads will rival America’s,” Nitin Gadkari told THE WEEK in a July 2023 interview when the country pipped China to have the world's second largest road network.
In the interview, Gadkari told the magazine, "We are transparent and result oriented. We work as a team and resolve the problem. I encourage good work. When there is inspiration for a good cause, people work.”
Back then Gadkari even predicted that the Modi government will return to power this year. “The huge infrastructure projects implemented by the government led by Prime Minister Modi will help it retain power in 2024,” he said.
With infrastructure upgrades and welfare programmes, Gadkari has ensured development in his own constituency, Nagpur. “Every three days, I am in my constituency, meeting people. The meeting time is from 2pm to 5 pm, and around 3,000 people meet me. The people in my constituency are family for me and my workers. Making their lives sustainable is my moral responsibility. My biggest strength is the sincere hard work I do for the people. This is the reason that people cutting across caste, creed, religion and gender support me," Gadkari told THE WEEK last year.
And now, the people have voted him to power for a third time as he defeated his nearest Congress rival by a margin of around 1.38 lakh votes. "We will be continuously working to fulfill PM Modi's dream of Atma-nirbhar and Viksit Bharat," he said after winning the polls.
If Gadkari retains the portfolio, one of the top priorities will be the greenfield expressway projects under the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase 1.
– with inputs from Pratul Sharma
