The Road Transport and Highways Ministry is in discussions with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to consider implementing electricity-based mass public rapid transit solution (MRTS) technologies from the US, Russia and Spain, in order to ease congestion on city roads.

The capital cost of these technologies are much cheaper than the metro rail system. The technologies include Tesla’s hyperloop, metrino and monorail. “We will try to undertake some of these on a trial basis. We are also in discussion with the NITI Aayog for the same,” Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said at a conference here on Thursday.

Gadkari said he had also asked the Finance Minister for separate funds to decongest major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru, which need different solutions. He has also asked the Finance Minister for funds for multi-modal stations.

The Minister said road projects of 15,000-km will be awarded before the end of this fiscal, adding that he expected the pace of road construction to improve over the next few months as most of such activities happen during the second half of the year when there are less rains.

The Highway Ministry expects that by March, about 50 per cent of vehicles on national highways will use digital payments — fast tags — for paying toll. As of now, about 20 per cent of vehicles have fast tags.

For improving road safety, Gadkari called for more CCTVs. He also urged charitable trusts and corporates to donate ambulances that could be run by various national highways.

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