'No Dearth Of Funds': Gadkari Slams Bureaucratic Inertia On Infrastructure Projects At Pune Event

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari expressed frustration over bureaucratic resistance to innovation in infrastructure development, saying there is “no dearth of funds” but a worrying lack of flexibility in government machinery, reported PTI.

Speaking in Pune at a function to felicitate former Finance Commission chairman Vijay Kelkar with the Punyabhushan Award, Gadkari lauded Kelkar’s approach to policy reform as a rare exception to the otherwise rigid system.

“There is no death of funds with us,” Gadkari said, adding, “I always talk of Rs 1 lakh crore, Rs 50,000 crore, Rs 2 lakh crore projects. Generally, journalists do not trust politicians when it comes to big ticket announcements. I tell them to record what I say and run breaking news if the work does not get materialised.”

He said the bottleneck lies not in financing but in implementation. Drawing a sharp comparison, he remarked, “In rural areas, when cattle go for grazing, they follow one line. They are so disciplined that they never break the order. I sometimes get the same feeling with the bureaucracy. It is a complete no to out-of-the-box ideas. But Kelkar sir accepted flexibility in policy-making.”

Recalling a key intervention, Gadkari said, “I told him the only reason is bureaucrats,” when explaining why Rs 3.85 lakh crore worth of stalled projects had risked turning Rs 3 lakh crore into NPAs for banks. Kelkar’s willingness to accommodate reform helped revive the projects, he said.

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