Overview
Nitin Jairam Gadkari (born 27 May 1957) is an Indian politician serving as the 40th Minister of Road Transport and Highways, a portfolio he has held since 2014. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he is a lawyer by profession and represents the Nagpur constituency in the Lok Sabha.
Gadkari served as the National President of the BJP from 2009 to 2013. In the Union Government, he has held charge of several departments over the years, including Water Resources and River Development, Shipping, Rural Development, and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). He is the longest serving Minister for Road Transport and Highways, and is noted for serving under a single portfolio for three consecutive terms.
He is often referred to in the media as the "Expressway Man of India" in connection with his role in initiating the Mumbai–Pune Expressway and his work on expressways and other road infrastructure. The World Economic Forum has described him as a pioneer of public–private partnership (PPP) in the road sector.
According to figures cited for his tenure as Minister of Road Transport and Highways, India's National Highway network expanded from 91,287 km in 2014 to 146,195 km in 2024, an increase of around 60%, becoming the world's second largest such network. The length of National High-Speed Corridors rose from 93 km in 2014 to 2,474 km in 2024, while the length of four-lane and above National Highways (excluding High-Speed Corridors) expanded from 18,278 km in 2014 to 45,947 km in 2024.
References
Adapted from the English Wikipedia article on Nitin Gadkari.