Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday that the country is poised for a grey revolution or construction boom, fuelled by road development initiatives, which have generated huge employment opportunities in villages.

This revolution has been fuelled by the largest highway construction progamme in the world, Jaitley said while inaugurating the First International Exhibition and Conference on Building Materials and Construction Technologies in New Delhi.

Stressing on fast development of urban infrastructure, he said in order to become a developed nation by 2020, villages would require huge urban infrastructure and cities would need facelift in terms of metro, convention centre and underground parking facilities on a priority basis.

He also asked the construction industry to acquire latest skills and technologies for enhancing its competitiveness.

On infrastructure projects like Golden Quadrilateral and Sagarmala, Jaitley said these are examples of the connectivity revolution, which would change the face of the economy.

The minister, however, said, "we have a long way to go in this field" as is evident from the fact that the global average for per capita consumption for of the basic input steel is at 150 kg as against the Indian average of 27 kg.