Gadkari says he gets blamed even for state road cave-ins

Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday that he is unfairly blamed for road problems even when the road was built by a state government. Speaking at the Festival of Thinkers lecture series in Pune, he cited the 'missing link' road on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, which was built by the Maharashtra government but drew criticism after a monsoon landslide blocked the route just nine weeks after its inauguration.

Gadkari said he built the Mumbai-Pune Expressway 27 years ago and it has never developed a pothole, but that fact never gets reported. He claimed the forest department did not grant permission during his tenure, so the missing link road was built by the state. When issues arose, he was targeted on social media despite not being responsible.

The missing link is a 13-km bypass with twin tunnels and a cable-stayed bridge, built at a cost of Rs 6,695 crore. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis rejected criticism of the project and said additional safety measures would be taken. Separately, NHAI denied a cave-in on the Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway, saying only the upper surface was affected and was repaired within hours.