The Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari 

Bengaluru:(IANS) The Narendra Modi government has set a target of two percent contribution by the roads and highways sector to the national GDP growth within the next two years, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.

“Our target is to widen and expand national highways to 150,000 km from 90,000 km across the country for ensuring the sector contributes at least two percent to the GDP growth and create about 50 lakh jobs,” Gadkari said at Excon 2015, an international construction equipment industry event.

Lamenting that there was a 22 percent shortage of drivers in the country, he exhorted the stakeholders in the infrastructure sector to set up training centres or schools across the country to train drivers and other skilled manpower for meeting their growing requirement.

“We are amending the Motor Vehicle Act to introduce computerised driving schools and training centre to impart skills for driving specialised vehicles used in the infrastructure sector, especially in building roads and national highways,” Gadkari told about 500 delegates participating in Excon’s eighth edition.

Advising the construction industry and transportation sector to use more biodiesel to check air pollution, the minister said even developing countries like Brazil were using biodiesel or ethanol as an alternative fuel to drive their vehicles so as to reduce carbon footprint and protect their environment.

“The industry should be innovative and sensitive to the environment, as it is the duty of everyone to ensure air quality remains pure and fresh by minimising use of diesel and change their vehicle engines to run on bio-diesel or ethanol,” he said.