periodical issue
IRTDA News Letter.
Indian Roads and Transport Development Association, Limited · Bombay · 1965
14 pages
Summary
This 30 April 1965 issue of the IRTDA News Letter centers on M. R. Masani’s parliamentary case for giving roads and road transport a much larger place in India’s Fourth Five-Year Plan. Reproducing his speech, it criticizes the prioritization of railways, inadequate road allocations, wagon shortages, heavy taxation, licensing restrictions, and the slow implementation of highway projects. Masani argues that roads yield rapid economic returns, support agriculture and industry, and should not be subordinated to a state-dominated transport policy.
The issue also carries extracts from the Ministry of Transport’s report on national highways and other road schemes. These report progress on bridges, missing road links, highway improvements, the West Coast Road, the Lateral Road Project, and the Central Road Fund, while documenting cost increases, delays, and proposed Fourth Plan allocations. Masani’s speech additionally addresses automobile production, the risks of a state monopoly in goods transport, tourism, foreign exchange, airport services, and hotel policy. Commercial advertisements for concrete journals, trucks, diesel engines, asphalt, and bitumen reinforce the newsletter’s institutional focus on road-building and transport infrastructure.
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