“There is overwhelming enthusiasm among American companies and investors to invest in India. Results could be seen soon,” Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari told PTI as he concluded his week-long trip to the US that took him to Washington, New York, St Louis, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Acknowledging that India’s infrastructure sector is lagging behind and it has a long way to go to match the international standards, Gadkari said that the modernization and upgrade of transport infrastructure has the potential to become a driver of the country’s growth.
Now that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government has taken several steps to facilitate smooth and hassle-free foreign direct investment in the infrastructure sector, Gadkari said based on his interaction and meetings in the US, he is confident that billions of dollars would soon start flowing into India, according to Financial Tribune.
Gadkari said in addition to construction of a road network across the country, the ambitious Sagarmala project along with promoting use of green fuel and clean energy vehicles would create a large number of jobs in the country and provide an unprecedented boost to the Indian economy.
He said India is committed to encouraging alternate pollution free transport by providing incentives to bio-fuel, CNG, ethanol and electric vehicles.
“Prime Minister Modi has made infrastructure development top-most priority of his government,” he said, adding that the US companies now consider India their next frontier of foreign direct investment.
In his talks with the US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, he sought cooperation in sharing intelligent traffic systems and transfer of technology in road engineering, use of IT in reducing road accidents and centrally controlled traffic light surveillance systems for road safety.
EghtesadOnline: US companies consider India their next FDI frontier and are keen to pump in billions of dollars into the country’s infrastructure and transportation sector, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said.