India to launch $71 bn road projects in 3 months |
As the automobile industry is reeling under a slowdown, the Indian government is taking measures to boost demand for commercial vehicles. In one such step, the government will commission 68 road construction projects worth 70 billion dollars in the next three months. The announcement was made by Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday. He reiterated that petrol and diesel-engine vehicles will not be banned even as the country`s huge crude oil import and inflated levels of pollution remain a concern. Speaking at the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers conclave, the minister of road transport and highways said the road projects will generate demand for construction equipment and heavy commercial vehicles, sales of which has remained subdued for the past eight to nine months. Commercial vehicle sales plunged by a massive 40% in August, the eighth consecutive month of fall, impacted by the revised axle-load norms and halt in several infrastructure projects. The government last year hiked the loading limit for CVs by 15-20%, as a result of which fleet operators got more bandwidth to load goods impacting the new purchases.
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