Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday unveiled a major infrastructure push in Jharkhand, announcing that the Centre would implement National Highway projects worth ₹2 lakh crore in the state over the coming years.
File photo of Nitin Gadkari
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday unveiled a major infrastructure push in Jharkhand, announcing that the Centre would implement National Highway projects worth ₹2 lakh crore in the state over the coming years. Addressing a large public gathering in Garhwa, the senior minister inaugurated and laid the foundation for road projects totalling over ₹2,400 crore, declaring, “Development must be the core of politics once elections are over.”
In a rare convergence of Centre-State optics, Jharkhand Finance Minister Radha Krishna Kishore, representing Chief Minister Hemant Soren, shared the dais with Gadkari and offered an unusually emotional address. “To speak on your stage is humbling,” he said, likening the Union Minister to Raja Karna from Indian mythology—“a giver who never returns anyone empty-handed.”
Advertisement
Two major highway projects were highlighted during the event. National Highway 43, a 32.37 km stretch built at a cost of ₹1,325.8 crore, and NH-39, 22.73 km in length, costing ₹1,129.48 crore, were presented as key arteries for connecting Garhwa to larger trade and industrial corridors. Collectively, the 55.1 km of roadworks inaugurated today represent an investment of ₹2,455.28 crore.
Advertisement
Gadkari used the occasion to blend policy with empathy. Drawing from his own experience in Maharashtra’s drought-hit Vidarbha, he proposed a model for Jharkhand that includes the construction of check dams and farm ponds. “We built 1,000 ponds and transformed our region. If the Jharkhand government supports this, we are ready to do the same here,” he said. He also encouraged ethanol production from rice husk in the state, in line with India’s broader biofuel strategy, citing that “20% ethanol blending in petrol is the new standard.”
The Minister reported that while ₹40,000 crore worth of NH projects have already been completed in the state, another ₹70,000 crore worth are under implementation, with fresh proposals worth ₹75,000 crore in the pipeline. Gadkari also affirmed that Jharkhand’s 19 aspirational districts are now connected to the national highway network—a significant shift from 2014, when the state had merely 2,600 km of national highways compared to 4,470 km today.
Among the key upcoming projects is the Varanasi–Ranchi–Kolkata greenfield corridor, pegged at ₹36,000 crore, which is expected to be completed by March 2028. In parallel, a ₹12,800 crore Ranchi–Varanasi economic corridor is slated for completion by January 2028, while the six-lane Delhi–Kolkata corridor, worth ₹31,700 crore, is expected to be ready by June 2026.
The minister also urged the Jharkhand government to expedite land acquisition, forest clearances, and other pending approvals. Subtly alluding to the Hemant Soren-led administration’s “populist impulses,” Gadkari reminded the audience that “good governance must not be held hostage to bureaucratic inertia.”
Following the event, the minister was scheduled to travel to Ranchi. However, adverse weather conditions forced his flight to be diverted mid-air to Gaya airport in Bihar, where he was grounded for approximately 40 minutes. Officials at the airport confirmed that visibility in Ranchi was dangerously low due to heavy rainfall and cloud cover. A separate aircraft was arranged from Ranchi to complete his onward journey.
Advertisement
