Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that YouTube pays him Rs4 lakh every month for the lectures he delivers online.
Gadkari was speaking at an event in Gurugram, Haryana, where he also reviewed the progress of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway.
"In COVID time, I did two things: I started cooking at home and giving lectures through video conference. I delivered many lectures online, which were uploaded on YouTube. Owing to huge viewership, YouTube now pays me Rs 4 lakhs per month," he said.
The BJP minister has 1.99 lakh subscribers on the video-sharing platform, where he uploads coverage of speeches he delivers and events he attends, as well as road safety awareness videos and addresses by the president and prime minister.
One of the more popular videos on his channel is one of him sharing post-COVID rehabilitation exercises, which garnered 6.5 lakh views. Gadkari had tested positive for COVID-19 in September 2020 and said the exercises helped him regain his health.
At the event in Haryana, which was also attended by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khatter, Gadkari also joked about the time he demolished his father-in-law's house as it was in the middle of a road.
"I was newly married," he said. "My father-in-law's house was in the middle of the road. Without telling my wife, I had ordered the demolition of my father-in-law's house.”
The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which costs about Rs 95,000 crore, is expected to be completed by March 2023. Gadkari had reviewed the status of the project in Gurugram and said that work on the 160km stretch in Haryana would be done by March 2022.
The eight-lane 1,350 km expressway will be the first such highway in the country to have wildlife crossings, and there will also be a stretch called an 'e-highway', where heavy vehicles can travel at a speed of 120 kmph.
