BJP government will bring rapid development in Capital: Gadkari

New Delhi: Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday vowed to transform Delhi’s landscape if the BJP assumed power in the national Capital after the February 5 polls.

Addressing a public meeting in Shalimar Bagh, the senior BJP leader claimed the saffron party did not seek to merely change the government but to transform the national capital.

“We do not just want to change the government ... We want to change the picture of Delhi … Only the BJP can do this,” he asserted. Gadkari compared BJP-led governance to high-speed progress, asserting that Delhi’s development would accelerate like a bullet train if the saffron party assumed power.

“If the BJP’s engine is installed in Delhi, development will happen at bullet-train speeds,” he remarked. Addressing the issue of pollution, Gadkari pledged to make the city free from toxic air in five years.

“Delhi is not just the country’s capital but also the heart of the people. This heart has developed an infection,” he said, referring to the national capital’s severe air pollution problem.

Citing global rankings, he noted that 42 of the

world’s 50 most polluted cities were in India, with Delhi being the worst hit. Gadkari — the Union minister of road transport and highways — acknowledged transportation as a significant contributor to the problem, with fossil fuels accounting for about 40 per cent of the city’s pollution. “I accept that 40 per cent of the pollution happens because of my department.”

He also highlighted the Centre’s waste management efforts, claiming that 20 lakh tons of garbage from the Ghazipur landfill had been used for road construction, reducing the height of the garbage pile by seven metres.

“Can this situation not be changed?” he asked, asserting that the Centre had been actively working on addressing these challenges.