ET Now: Let’s talk about the infra scene…
Nitin Gadkari: The dream of our Prime Minister is to make India a $5 trillion economy and for that reason, the most important thing the country needs is infrastructure development.
Without water, power, transport and communication, we will not get industry and capital investment. Without industry and capital investment, we cannot create employment potential. And without employment potential, we cannot eradicate poverty. That is very important.
The most important thing which I feel related to is the G20 Alliance for Biofuel. That is to be a great achievement. Presently, we have the technology. We are making ethanol from sugarcane juice, molasses, B-molasses, C-molasses, ethanol from corn, ethanol from food grain, ethanol from rice, wheat. We are making ethanol from bamboo. And now in Panipat, we are making ethanol from rice straw.
Now Indian Oil is going to start making not only ethanol, but also bio-bitumen. At the same time, they are making bio-aviation fuel. I am confident that in due course of time, we will have a technology where we will convert carbon dioxide into ethanol. That would be a great thing for the country.
I want to ask you a personal question. You remember so many statistics — it is at the tip of your tongue. Sir, what do you eat in the morning?
If I tell you the truth. I study a lot. I study a lot. I was a mediocre student. I have told you many times that I was disqualified for admission to engineering college because at that time (1975), I was working against the emergency. I got 52% mark in the HSE exam and in science group 49.26%. But a professional college requires 50%.Actually, a person who holds ownership for his work remembers each and everything.One of the prime programmes of your government is PM Gati Shakti. What exactly is your ministry’s involvement in the PM Gati Shakti?
In this country, you have seen many times that on one side a railway bridge is being built and on the other side a road bridge is being built. On one side a road tunnel is being built and on the other side a railway tunnel is being built.
The problem is that the government runs in a silo. This department does not talk to that department; that department does not talk to this department. If both of them get a chance to talk to each other, they will say, I will talk to my department and he will talk to his department. This is very common.
We have players here who must have confidence…
This is how it is taught to each other. So we need to establish cooperation, coordination and communication between the stakeholders.
Secondly, we are building a road. Here is a big port. We will put priority on building a road. We have collected 850 such points.
