Union Road Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, is reported to have campaigned for the BJP in the city on Wednesday, where he claimed that Haryana's national highway infrastructure would surpass that of the United States in the coming years. Speaking at a rally in Bhim Nagar in support of the BJP's Gurgaon candidate, Mukesh Sharma, Gadkari is said to have highlighted that road projects worth Rs 2 trillion were either in progress or in the planning stages across Haryana.
The Union Minister reportedly described the Dwarka Expressway as a “world-class” project, remarking that once construction on this Delhi-Gurgaon link road was completed, drivers would remember him every time they used it. Foreign visitors to Gurgaon, he suggested, would be impressed by the expressway. A 19-kilometre stretch of the eight-lane expressway within the city was inaugurated in March, but the 9.5-kilometre segment in Delhi remains under construction, with completion expected later this year. On Wednesday, Gadkari is understood to have acknowledged the commuting challenges faced by residents on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway during the monsoon, assuring that permanent relief from congestion on NH-8 was forthcoming, though he was unable to provide specific details due to the election code of conduct.
The minister is believed to have announced the approval of nine foot overbridges (FOBs) on NH-8 in Gurgaon and Rewari districts, as well as four flyovers at accident-prone spots to reduce road fatalities, with completion expected by December 2025. According to local traffic police data, the city records around 400 road accident deaths annually, with nearly 30% of these occurring on the highway.
Gadkari reportedly noted that although the Delhi-Jaipur highway is one of the busiest expressways in the country, its condition from Manesar to Jaipur remains subpar. He went on to say that while the United States leads the global automobile market, followed by China, India would rank second within five years, and potentially first within ten.
Urging voters to back the BJP in Gurgaon, Gadkari is said to have referred to the work done over the past decade as merely a "trailer," with the "real movie" yet to begin. Shifting focus from infrastructure, he reportedly spoke about the creation of a prosperous nation through socio-economic infrastructure, while criticising political exploitation of backwardness.
Targeting the Congress party, Gadkari allegedly accused it of using the slogan of poverty eradication for its own benefit, leaving ordinary people in poverty. On the issue of stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab, Gadkari is said to have remarked that this practice would soon become a source of prosperity for farmers. He highlighted the BJP's ambition to make farmers not just food producers but also fuel providers, pointing out that new technologies were enabling bio-CNG and bio-LNG production from stubble, and that maize used for bio-ethanol was now fetching higher prices.
