The government is finding alternatives to reduce the use of cement and steel in highway construction in a bid to check rising costs, transport minister Nitin Gadkari said.A committee has been formed in the ministry of road transport and highways to look at such alternatives and best international practices in construction. The minister is considering approaching the Prime Minister to form a regulatory commission to rein in companies in these sectors. “They should be brought under control,” Gadkari said. “I will write to the PM about this. If this continues, how will roads be built, how will we implement the PM Awas Yojana, how will MSMEs survive?”The “imbalance” created by cement companies will not be tolerated, Gadkari said in an exclusive interview with ET. “They are forming a cartel and increasing prices. MSMEs are facing trouble because of this,” the minister said. 81938475The minister said he was pushing for removal of import duties on steel and cement. " I have also asked the commerce ministry to make bitumen imports duty free," he said, adding that the government will encourage alternate materials to keep infrastructure costs low. Gadkari said after a record year in highway construction, the focus is now on strengthening the conciliation mechanism of public-private partnership contracts.“There are a lot of loopholes in the conciliation mechanism. But I will go deeper into this and look at the conciliation and arbitration history and understand where the problems lie,” he said. “I want all arbitration cases to be resolved under three months.”India added a record 13,400 km of highways across the country in FY21, with the daily pace of construction reaching 37 km per day.Gadkari said the ministry’s focus is now on improving the quality and lowering the cost of construction of infrastructure projects.Asked about the construction target for FY22, Gadkari said the priority is to add 40 km of roads daily and once that is achieved, a new target can be set.Talking about the automobile industry’s demands on deferring corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) norms, which stipulate that cars should be 30% or more fuel efficient from 2022, Gadkari said discussions are going on and a call will be taken soon.“I have told them to bring a proposal on flex engine – it should come in April and we will see then. But it has to be two-way traffic, not one-way traffic,” Gadkari said, referring to cooperation expected from the auto industry.A flexible-fuel vehicle uses an internal combustion engine designed to run on more than one fuel, usually gasoline blended with either ethanol or methanol.