From potholes to PiFi, Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways sets the tone for an infrastructure renaissance where roads aren’t just built—they’re smart, sustainable, and proudly Made-for-Bharat
In a high-octane session that was part TED Talk, part townhall, and entirely forward-looking, Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Ajay Tamta, declared that “Building roads is no longer a contractor’s job—it’s a scientist’s mission.”
Speaking at a knowledge exchange forum with IIT Delhi, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) Delhi, and industry partners, Tamta laid down an audacious roadmap for the nation’s infrastructure future, one that includes innovation labs, PiFi-powered buses, and corridors that think smarter than your phone.

“We’re not just building roads—we’re building national arteries of growth that must flow with safety, sustainability, and smart thinking,” Tamta said, with the kind of conviction usually reserved for space missions and cricket finals.
🛣️ From Reactive to Proactive – And Then Some
Citing the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Viksit Bharat 2047, the Minister emphasized the shift from traditional road construction to proactive, innovation-led planning. “A road project is not just an engineering contract—it’s a nation-building tool,” he remarked, before highlighting how context-sensitive, localised designs can solve chronic issues like:
- Land acquisition logjams
- Urban traffic migraines
- The ‘last-mile connectivity’ that feels like a marathon
- Budget overruns that would make even Bollywood jealous
🚀 Enter: PiFi, CoEs, and Indianised Design Thinking
Among the futuristic concepts discussed was “PiFi” – Private Internet Fidelity – a no-app, no-URL public mobility system that even your great-grandfather could use. Think of it as Uber meets jugaad.
The Minister also urged academic institutions to develop multi-directional traffic models, hotspot-based safety frameworks, and door-to-door low-cost transit systems—turning India’s road network into something that could double as a civil engineering thesis or a Netflix docuseries.
Not Copying the West, But Driving Eastward with Confidence
Making a strong case for indigenised infrastructure, Tamta quipped,
“India’s roads shouldn’t look like someone copy-pasted them from Europe. We have our own geometry, monsoon, mindset—and occasionally, buffaloes in the fast lane. Let’s design for that.”
🧪 Centres of Excellence: Where Brains Meet Bitumen
Tamta backed the creation of Centres of Excellence (CoEs) across academic and industry bodies as incubators for infrastructure innovation, where designs compete before DPRs are even inked. In other words: before we pour concrete, let’s pour ideas.
He lauded IIT Delhi and SPA Delhi as trailblazers and invited India’s entire research ecosystem to jump in the driver’s seat of this national mission.