The minister of road transport and highways is the head of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and a senior member of the union council of ministers of the Government of India. The portfolio is usually held by a minister with cabinet rank who is a senior member of the council of ministers and is often assisted by one or two junior ministers or the Ministers of State.
The current minister is Nitin Gadkari who has been serving in office since 26 May 2014 and is currently assisted by V. K. Singh as the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways.
Two past presidents- Neelam Sanjiva Reddy and Pranab Mukherjee served as ministers in the ministry. Reddy was Cabinet Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation from 1966 till 1967 while Mukherjee was Deputy Minister of Shipping and Transport in 1974. One past prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri served as Minister of Transport and Railways from 1952 till 1956 and as Minister of Transport and Communications from 1957 till 1958. Five prime ministers - Morarji Desai (in 1977), Rajiv Gandhi (in 1986), Chandra Shekhar (in 1991), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (in 1996 and in 2000) and Manmohan Singh (in 2013) held the charge of the ministry during their premierships. The current minister Nitin Gadkari holds the record of being the longest-serving minister in the ministry.
Titles of office The ministry has been subjected to various changes since its inception. The ministers have been known by the following titles from time to time:
19471948: Minister of Transport 19481957: Minister of Transport and Railways 19571963: Minister of Transport and Communications 19631966: Minister of Transport 19661967: Minister of Transport and Aviation 19671985: Minister of Shipping and Transport 19851986: Minister of Transport 19862000: Minister of Surface Transport 20002004: Minister of Road Transport and Highways 20042009: Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways 2009present: Minister of Road Transport and Highways
History of office The "Ministry of Transport" was created upon the nation's independence on 15 August 1947 with John Mathai being appointed as the inaugural minister. On 22 September 1948, the ministry was renamed as "Ministry of Transport and Railways" and N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar was appointed as the minister on the same day. With the formation of the Third Nehru ministry on 17 April 1957, the Ministry of Transport and Railways was bifurcated into the "Ministry of Railways" and the "Ministry of Transport and Communications" with the merger of the Ministry of Communications with the transport ministry.
On 1 September 1963, the Department of Communications was separated from the ministry and the ministry was renamed as "Ministry of Transport". Upon Indira Gandhi's appointment as the Prime Minister on 24 January 1966, the Ministry of Civil Aviation was merged with the Ministry of Transport to form the "Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation" which was short-lived and the Department of Civil Aviation was separated and merged to form the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation. Meanwhile, the Department of Transport was renamed as "Ministry of Shipping and Transport".
On 25 September 1985, the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Shipping and Transport and the Department of Civil Aviation were merged to form the "Ministry of Transport" with constituent departments of Railways, Surface Transport and Civil Aviation. Bansi Lal was appointed as the minister of the bulk-ministry and was assisted by three ministers of state, Madhavrao Scindia for Railways, Rajesh Pilot for Surface Transport and Jagdish Tytler for Civil Aviation. Lal resigned on 4 June 1986 and was succeeded by Mohsina Kidwai. In a reshuffle of the union cabinet on 22 October 1986, the Ministry of Transport was bifurcated into the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Surface Transport and the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Three ministers of state of the constituent departments of the erstwhile transport ministry - Madhavrao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot, and Jagdish Tytler were appointed as the ministers of state with independent charge of the newly created three independent ministries.
The Ministry of Surface Transport existed from 1986 until 7 November 2000 when the ministry bifurcated into two separate ministries, viz. the "Ministry of Road Transport and Highways" and the "Ministry of Shipping". On 2 October 2004, the two ministries were re-united as the "Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways" and were re-bifurcated in May 2009 and has since then existed as two independent ministries. Nitin Gadkari served as the minister of both ministries between 2014 till 2019 and since 2019 has been heading the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The Ministry of Shipping was renamed as the "Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways" on 10 November 2020.
Cabinet ministers Note: MoS, I/C Minister of State (Independent Charge)
PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party Ministry From To Period Minister of Transport (19471948) John Mathai 1947 1948 Indian National Congress Nehru I Minister of Transport and Railways (19481957) N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar 1948 1952 Indian National Congress Nehru I Lal Bahadur Shastri 1952 1956 Nehru II Jagjivan Ram 1956 1957 Minister of Transport and Communications (19571963) Lal Bahadur Shastri 1957 1958 Indian National Congress Nehru III S. K. Patil 1958 1959 Jawaharlal Nehru(Prime Minister) 1959 1959 P. Subbarayan 1959 1962 Jagjivan Ram 1962 1963 Nehru IV Raj Bahadur 1962 1963 Minister of Transport (19631966) Raj Bahadur(MoS until 1 September 1963) 1963 1964 Indian National Congress Nehru IV 1964 1964 Nanda I 1964 1966 Shastri 1966 1966 Nanda II Minister of Transport and Aviation (19661967) Neelam Sanjiva Reddy 1966 1967 Indian National Congress Indira I Minister of Shipping and Transport (19671985) V. K. R. V. Rao 1967 1969 Indian National Congress Indira II Kotha Raghuramaiah 1969 1971 Indian National Congress (R) Raj Bahadur 1971 1973 Indira III Kamalapati Tripathi 1973 1975 Uma Shankar Dikshit 1975 1975 Gurdial Singh Dhillon 1975 1977 Morarji Desai(Prime Minister) 1977 1977 Janata Party Desai Jagjivan Ram(Deputy Prime Minister) 1977 1977 Morarji Desai(Prime Minister) 1977 1977 Chand Ram(MoS, I/C) 1977 1979 Janeshwar Mishra(MoS, I/C) 1979 1980 Janata Party (Secular) Charan Anant Sharma 1980 1980 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Veerendra Patil 1980 1982 C. M. Stephen 1982 1983 Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy 1983 1984 Veerendra Patil 1984 1984 1984 1984 Rajiv I Ziaur Rahman Ansari(MoS, I/C) 1984 1985 Rajiv II Minister of Transport (19851986) Bansi Lal 1985 1986 Indian National Congress (I) Rajiv II Rajiv Gandhi(Prime Minister) 1986 1986 Mohsina Kidwai 1986 1986 Minister of Surface Transport (19862000) Rajesh Pilot(MoS, I/C) 1986 1989 Indian National Congress (I) Rajiv II K. P. Unnikrishnan 1989 1990 Janata Dal Vishwanath Manubhai Kotadia 1990 1991 Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar(Prime Minister) 1991 1991 Jagdish Tytler(MoS, I/C) 1991 1995 Indian National Congress (I) Rao M. Rajasekara Murthy(MoS, I/C) 1995 1996 Atal Bihari Vajpayee(Prime Minister) 1996 1996 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee I T. G. Venkatraman 1996 1997 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Deve Gowda 1997 1998 Gujral Sedapatti R. Muthiah 1998 1998 20 days All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Vajpayee II M. Thambidurai 1998 1999 1 year Nitish Kumar 1999 1999 Samata Party Jaswant Singh 1999 1999 Bharatiya Janata Party Nitish Kumar 1999 1999 Samata Party Vajpayee III Rajnath Singh 1999 2000 Bharatiya Janata Party Atal Bihari Vajpayee(Prime Minister) 2000 2000 Minister of Road Transport and Highways (20002004) B. C. Khanduri(MoS, I/C until 24 May 2003) 2000 2004 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee III T. R. Baalu 2004 2004 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Manmohan I Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways (20042009) T. R. Baalu 2004 2009 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Manmohan I Minister of Road Transport and Highways (2009present) Kamal Nath 2009 2011 Indian National Congress Manmohan II C. P. Joshi 2011 2013 Manmohan Singh(Prime Minister) 2013 2013 Oscar Fernandes 2013 2014 Nitin Gadkari 2014 Incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Modi II Modi III
Ministers of State PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party Ministry Prime Minister From To Period Minister of State for Transport and Railways 1 K. Santhanam 1 October1948 17 April1952 Indian National Congress Nehru I Jawaharlal Nehru Minister of State for Transport and Communications 2 Humayun Kabir 17 April1957 10 April1958 Indian National Congress Nehru III Jawaharlal Nehru 3 Raj Bahadur 17 April1957 10 April1962 Minister of State for Transport and Civil Aviation 4 C. M. Poonacha 24 January1966 13 March1967 Indian National Congress Indira I Indira Gandhi Minister of State for Shipping and Transport 5 Om Mehta 2 May1971 5 February1973 Indian National Congress (R) Indira III Indira Gandhi 6 Mansinhji Bhasaheb Rana 5 February1973 11 January1974 7 H. M. Trivedi 17 October1974 24 March1977 8 Buta Singh 8 June1980 15 January1982 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Indira Gandhi 9 Sitaram Kesri 15 January1982 29 January1983 10 Ziaur Rahman Ansari 29 January1983 31 October1984 4 November1984 31 December1984 Rajiv I Rajiv Gandhi Minister of State for Transport Minister of State in the Department of Railways 25 September1985 22 October1986 Indian National Congress Rajiv II Rajiv Gandhi 11A Madhavrao Scindia Minister of State in the Department of Surface Transport 11B Rajesh Pilot Minister of State in the Department of Civil Aviation 11C Jagdish Tytler Minister of State for Surface Transport 12 Debendra Pradhan 19 March1998 13 October1999 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee II Atal Bihari Vajpayee 13 October1999 27 May2000 Vajpayee III 13 Hukmdev Narayan Yadav 27 May2000 2 November2001 Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways 14 Shripad Naik 24 May2003 8 September2003 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee III Atal Bihari Vajpayee 15 Pon Radhakrishnan 8 September2003 22 May2004 16 K. H. Muniyappa 23 May2004 22 May2009 Indian National Congress Manmohan I Manmohan Singh 17 Mahadeo Singh Khandela 28 May2009 19 January2011 Manmohan II 18 R. P. N. Singh 28 May2009 19 January2011 19 Jitin Prasada 19 January2011 28 October2012 20 Tushar Amarsinh Chaudhary 19 January2011 26 May2014 21 Sarve Satyanarayana 28 October2012 26 May2014 22 Krishan Pal Gurjar 27 May2014 9 November2014 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi (15) Pon Radhakrishnan 9 November2014 3 September2017 25 Mansukh Mandaviya 5 July2016 30 May2019 26 V. K. Singh 31 May2019 9 June2024 Modi II 27 Ajay Tamta 10 June2024 Incumbent Modi III 28 Harsh Malhotra
Deputy Ministers PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party Ministry Prime Minister From To Period Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications 1 Mohiuddin Ahmed(Civil Aviation) 2 April1958 10 April1962 Indian National Congress Nehru III Jawaharlal Nehru (1) Mohiuddin Ahmed 16 April1962 1 September1963 Nehru IV 2 Bijoy Chandra Bhagavati 8 May1962 1 September1963 Deputy Minister of Transport (1) Mohiuddin Ahmed 1 September1963 27 May1964 Indian National Congress Nehru IV Jawaharlal Nehru 27 May1964 9 June1964 Nanda I Gulzarilal Nanda 15 June1964 5 January1966 Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri Deputy Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation 3 Jahanara Jaipal Singh 15 February1966 13 March1967 Indian National Congress Indira I Indira Gandhi Deputy Minister of Shipping and Transport 4 Bhakt Darshan 18 March1967 18 February1969 Indian National Congress Indira II Indira Gandhi 5 Sardar Iqbal Singh 14 February1969 18 March1971 Indian National Congress (R) 6 Pranab Mukherjee 11 January1974 10 October1974 Indian National Congress (R) Indira II 7 Chaudhary Dalbir Singh 1 December1975 24 March1977 Deputy Minister of Surface Transport 8 P. Namgyal 15 February1988 4 July1989 Indian National Congress (I) Rajiv II Rajiv Gandhi
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