Laying arterial roads network in rural areas would be the topmost priority of the newly-inducted Minister of State for Road Transport, Jitin Prasada, who says it would curb rising inflation.
"My focus would be to take roads to villages and blocks to facilitate farmers connectivity to highways to transport their goods. This in turn would also tackle the problem of rising inflation by brining food prices down," Prasada said soon after assuming charge.
Once the farmers would have connectivity, they can sell fruits and vegetables at reasonable prices in bigger markets, without the involvement of middlemen who eat away their profit share, he said, stressing that this would curb inflation.
"A massive network of road could also contribute significantly to India's GDP growth," Prasada added.
Asked about the target of building 35,000 km of highways by March 2012, as announced by former Transport Minister Kamal Nath, he said UPA government's endeavour has always been that the work should be done properly.
Soon after taking over as Transport Minister in May 2009, Nath had announced building 20 km of roads a day, which translates into 35,000 km in five years. At present the Ministry is able to achieve building 12.5 km of roads a day.