Reuters/Nagpur
The man Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tasked with launching a China-style infrastructure boom calls himself a “bulldozer” and promises to add two percentage points to India’s economic growth in two years.
“I am a man of my word,” Nitin Gadkari said on a trip to his home district in Maharashtra, the state where he made a reputation for getting the job done.
“If I fail, fall short on any of the promises, you can change my name.”
It was Gadkari’s first interview to foreign media since taking office.
Modi chose the 58-year-old former president of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party as transport and shipping minister after winning last year’s general election on a promise of growth and jobs for aspiring Indians.
Fifteen months after taking power, Modi’s credibility as an economic manager is on the line, with economic growth faltering and social tensions erupting in his home state of Gujarat over a lack of job opportunities.
That is increasing pressure on Gadkari to deliver results to back up Modi’s promises to build 100 ‘smart’ cities in India connected by a network of highways and high-speed rail links. He has money to play with: spending on roads and bridges has been doubled this fiscal year.
“The intent has been there and the right kind of policies are being pursued,” said Sandeep Upadhyay, managing director at the Centrum Infra Advisory Ltd. consultancy. “Still, you may never be able to see again the euphoria that we witnessed in 2008-09,” he added, referring to a credit-fuelled infrastructure boom under the last government.
Modi and Gadkari are a study in contrasts - the premier an ascetic loner with a neatly trimmed beard; his minister a garrulous, paunchy figure with a pencil moustache and a penchant for offbeat comments, including saying he waters the plants in his garden with urine to make them grow faster.
In a cabinet crowded with first-time ministers who can barely stand up to Modi, perhaps only Gadkari and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley are recognised in their own right.
As construction minister of Maharashtra between 1995 and 1999, Gadkari built India’s first high-speed concrete highway, from Mumbai to Pune, earning another nickname: ‘flyover minister’.
In his current job, Gadkari inherited $57bn in projects stalled by land and environmental disputes. The logjam has plunged developers into debt – 30% of the country’s $100bn in stressed bank loans are to the infrastructure sector.
The government has sought to unblock those projects and bridge the funding gap by hiking its own spending on infrastructure by nearly $11bn this year. It has also put $3bn of seed capital into a new infrastructure fund, and hopes to attract 10 times that in private backing.
Even after speedier clearances and a decision to bail out stressed schemes, road projects worth over $9bn are mired in land shortages and red tape. “There are banks, there are court cases,” Gadkari said on board a six-seater charter plane. “That’s why it is very difficult and very complicated.”
Adding to the challenge is the government’s retreat on plans to make it easier for businesses to buy land. After failing to win support in parliament, Modi has given up on legislation that would cover the whole country.
Putting a brave face on the setback, Gadkari said individual states would take the lead in easing the law on land purchases. “There will be no difficulty in acquiring land for infrastructure projects,” he said.
Gadkari wants to speed up the pace of road-building to over 30km a day by next March from 14 km a day at present, and complete $75bn worth of infrastructure projects over the next three years.
