Gadkari Plans Ambitious Electric Highway On Ring Road Of City, ET Infra

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NAGPUR: Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari spoke of a yet another ambitious project for the city: An electric highway on the Ring Road. “This would be a road for only electric vehicles to ply,” he said.

Gadkari was addressing the inaugural function of a digital delivery centre started by Tech Mahindra at it unit in the Mihan-SEZ. Sharing dais with the state’s deputy chief minster Devendra Fadnavis, Gadkari thanked him for allotting Rs 100 crore for city road transport projects by municipal corporations in the budget. Fadavis also holds the state finance portfolio.

“Another Rs 15 crore are needed for the electric highway. A connectivity to the Mihan-SEZ can also be built so that those working here can travel in e-buses to their workplace,” said Gadkari.

Gadkari said initially he had set a target for creating one lakh jobs in Mihan. “Now the project needs to be expanded and as much as 2 lakh jobs should be generated,” he said, while praising Fadnavis’s efforts to promote the SEZ.

The Dassault Reliance Aviation Limited (DRAL) has tied up with a college for skill training of the students. “Even Tatas’ TAAL is making 1,200 aircraft spares in Mihan,” he said.

CP Gurnani, the CEO and MD of Tech Mahindra, said the company has 650 techies at present and would be needing 1,500 soon and ultimately 2,000 in less than 18 months.

Earlier, Fadnavis said through its Mahanet programme, the state government could reach optical fibre in all the 29,000 villages of the state. “As much as 65% of the country’s data centric capacity is in Maharashtra. It can also be dubbed to be termed as the start up capital of the country as 15,000 of 80,000 registered startups are in the state along with 25 out of the 100 unicorns in the country,” he said.

“After the fibre reaches all the villages, the idea is to take technology to the next level. These days there is a major problem of new doctors not willing to work in rural areas. This can be done away with technology using 5G. We can provide healthcare using 5G. Nowadays technology can enable a doctor hear the heartbeats clearly if someone touches the stethoscope even from hundred kms way,” said Fadnavis.