Nitin Jairam Gadkari

Shri. Nitin Gadkari has served in Government of Maharashtra as the Minister of Public Works Department(PWD) from 1995 to 1999 and restructured it from top to bottom. He has served as the president of the Maharashtra BJP.

Positions served

• Ex Minister, Govt of Maharashtra
  
• chairman, Purti Group of Companies
  
• President, Bharatiya Janata Party, Maharashtra State
  
• Ex-Leader of Opposition, Maharashtra Legislative Council
  
• Former Minister for Public Works Department, Maharashtra State
  
• Member of Legislative Council, Maharashtra State
  
• Elected to the Maharashtra Govt. Legislative Council in 1989 from graduates constituency, Nagpur Region.
  
• Re-elected in the year 1990.
  
• Re-elected in the year 1996 and elected unopposed in 2002.
  
• Inducted in the Maharashtra State Government Cabinet as the Minister for Public Works on 27 May 1995.
  
• Ex-Member of the High Power Committee for Privatisation, Government of Maharashtra.
  
• Ex-Chairman, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, India.
  
• Ex-Guardian Minister for Nagpur District, Govt. of Maharashtra.
  
• Ex-Chairman, Mining policy Implementation Committee, Govt. of Maharashtra.
  
• Ex-Chairman, Metropolis Beautification Committee, Govt. of Maharashtra.
  
• Ex-Leader of Opposition, Maharashtra Legislative Council, Chairman National Rural Road Development Committee
  
• Chairman, Review Committee of CPWD, Govt. of India.
  
• State President of Bhartiya Janata Party, Maharashtra.
  
• National President of BJP, India.
  

As PWD Minister, Maharashtra, 1996-99

• As PWD Minister of Maharashtra, Gadkari played a crucial rule in expediting the construction of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and having it built in a little over 2 years.
  
• The idea to build a road which takes travel between Mumbai and Pune to less than 3 hours was first conceived by Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray.
  
• In 1990, the Government of Maharashtra appointed the RITES Limited and Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick companies to carry out feasibility studies for the new expressway 
  
• to be operated on a toll basis. RITES submitted their report in 1994 with the estimated cost of project at ₹11.46 billion.
  
• However, It was only after Gadkari took over as PWD Minister that the construction of this project was fast-tracked. Gadkari entrusted the work of the construction of 
  
• Mumbai-Pune expressway to MSRDC in March 1997 on Build-Operate-Transfer basis with permission to collect toll for 30 years. 
  
• The environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India was received on 13 October 1997. The Forest Clearance was received on 11 November 1997.
  
• The tender notice was published in leading newspapers all over India and also on the Internet. Due to the wide publicity, 133 tenders were sold and on 18 December 1997, 55 tenders were received. 
  
• After technical and financial evaluation, tenders were accepted and work orders were given on 1 January 1998 to four contractors. Thereafter tenders for widening of the Khandala and Lonavala-Khandala bypass works were invited. The tenders were received on 24 August 1998 and orders were issued on 4 September 1998.
  
• The first sections of the Expressway opened in 2000, and the entire route was completed, opened to traffic and made fully operational from April 2002.
  
• The other major achievement of Gadkari as state minister was the construction of 55 flyovers in Mumbai, which eased the city traffic problems significantly.
  

As President of BJP, 2009-2013

• Gadkari was appointed president of the BJP in December 2009. This was considering a tough phase for the BJP as the party had lost two successive Lok Sabha elections and needed a quick revamp.
  
• As party president, right from the start, Gadkari made his agenda very clear. He focused almost entirely on the ‘politics of development’. In his book, “India Aspires” co-authored with leading Indian author Tuhin Sinha, Gadkari spells out his development ideas for the country in great detail. Increased institutional support to green energy, alternate fuel and effective waste management hold special importance in Gadkari’s development plan. At a time when the country was plagued with the problem of policy paralysis under the UPA, Gadkari's proactive approach towards development, set a new and positive agenda for the country's politics.
  
• As party president, Gadkari, re-emphasized on legendary Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhya’s principles of Integrated Humanism and Antodaya. At the same time, various cells were constituted within the party to regularly monitor the develop work undertaken by various BJP state governments and to come up with new policy inputs.