Vadodara: Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari today announced that the work on Rs 44000 crore Vadodara-Mumbai expressway would start within a month.

Addressing the 38th meet of Transport Development Council Gadkari said that the expressway would decrease the travel time between the two cities by 2.5 to 3 hours.

He also said that apart from this other such 12 national highways were also being constructed across the country.

Gadkari said that he had requested the Gujarat government to remove earlier tax checkposts from the highways quickly. ‘According to a study the country suffered a loss to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore every year,’ he said.

He also praised the modern bus port of Vadodara and said that one of the main reasons to hold the TDC meet here was to show the port to participating transport ministers of various states, He urged them to make such bus ports in their states for the convenience of public.

He also urged them to adopt innovative ways. ‘The automobile industry in the country was growing at the rate of 22% per year and if it continues like this, a new lane on the highway will be needed every year for which Rs 80 thousand crores will be needed. So we must develop a cheaper and pollution-free public transport system, to deal with this issue,’ he said adding that to effectively deal with the issue of pollution vehicles like battery driven E-buses, E-Taxis and E-Rickshaws should be promoted and to lessen the cost of transportation emphasis should be on development of water ways for transportation.

Gadkari also expressed deep concern about road accident deaths and said that each year 1.5 lakh people die owing to road mishaps in the country. ‘We should adopt global standards in road construction and vehicles to deal with it. The government was also identifying accident prone zones for their removal,’ he said.

Transport ministers, secretaries and commissioners remained present in the meet. They also saw the state-of-the-art the bus port and Driving test track here.