New Delhi,  The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is planning to take over the State Highways with high traffic density from the state governments for a period of 25 years.

Thereafter, those state highways will be converted into 4 or 6 lane highways and then the Centre will collect toll from those highways.

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said this in a virtual address at the 12th International convention of Association of National Exchanges Members of India which was held in Mumbai on Saturday.

After a period of 12-13 years, the investments will be fully recovered from those state highways along with interests and land acquisition costs, Gadkari added.

He urged that investments in the infrastructure sector of the country will be risk-free and yield good returns and called for cooperation in the investment for infrastructure.

"The financial markets need to come up with innovative models to fund India's Infrastructure growth. We are inviting investments in the PPP model. We can export energy to the world if we channel our investments to waste management, green hydrogen, solar, and several such projects. Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Science, and Technology is the wealth of future India," he added.

Speaking about infrastructure development, the Minister said: "We are planning a green express highway between Mumbai and Bangalore."

It will be a 5 hours journey between Mumbai-Bengaluru and 3.5 - to 4 hours between Pune and Bengaluru, he added. The Mumbai-Pune Express Highway will take a turn from near the Ring Road of Pune and start as the Highway towards Bengaluru, he further mentioned.

Likewise, 27 green express highways are coming up in the country. The Ministry is also in the process of constructing 75 tunnels at a cost of Rs 2,50,000 crores, stated the Minister. On an average, 40 km of roads are constructed per day in the country, said Gadkari.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry is also looking at diversifying fuel base to include ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel, bio-LNG, BIO-CNG, electric and green hydrogen.

Stating that the country's automobile industry's size is Rs 7.5 lakh crore, Gadkari said that there is a plan to make it a Rs 15 lakh crore industry within 5 years.

The Automobile industry has maximum employment potential and brings in maximum GST to the Centre and states, he added.