Kamal Nath admits slack in developing road infrastructure

NAGPUR: Admitting growth in road sector was poor as compared to automobile sector in India, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Kamal Nath has said that the centre would be launching several projects in the next four months to meet the demand.

"When auto sector was growing at 37 per cent, the road sector was not meeting the expected growth," Nath said at the inaugural session of the 71st Indian Roads Congress (IRC) here last evening.

India targets to build 20 kilometers of road per day by March-end 2012. Nath called on the road engineers to "provide world class roads with world class technologies".

Highlighting the role of IRC, Kamal Nath said IRC should redesign the roads in view of rising automobile sector. "More and more youth are going for motor bikes and therefore, there is an urgent need for increasing the road network in the country," he said.