OPTIMISING ROAD CONNECTIVITY

Robust transport infrastructure is key to the economic development and social integration of any nation, and given its cost-effectiveness and penetration into populous areas, road transport is one of the most preferred modes of transportation in the country. India has the second largest road network in the world with a length of over 6.2 million km and the sector accounts for about 87 per cent of passenger traffic and 60 per cent of freight traffic movement. It also acts as a feeder service to railway, shipping, and air traffic.

Redefining highway expansion

The national highways (NH), comprising about 2 per cent of the total road network, carry 40 per cent of the total road traffic. With the National Highways Development Program (NHDP) reaching a certain level of maturity, the Government of India found it imperative to redefine the expansion of the NH network. Various issues concerning the development of infrastructure under the NHDP included the following:

• Infrastructural inconsistencies in the NH network, where the highway projects were being decided with limited consideration to the existing corridors and networks
• Presence of congestion points on already developed corridors, due to interaction of local city traffic with the highway traffic
• Lack of accident response infrastructure on the highway roads.

The Bharatmala Pariyojana was thus launched in 2017, with an overarching corridor-approach, to optimise the efficiency of already built infrastructure, enable multimodal integration, bridge infrastructural gaps for a more seamless freight and passenger movement across the country and integrate National and Economic Corridors.

The six key features of the program are:

• Developing Economic Corridors
• Constructing Inter-Corridors and Feeder Routes
• Enabling decongestion of existing National Corridors and undertaking lane expansion
• Improving road connectivity to border areas
• Enhancing Coastal and Port Connectivity Roads
• Building Green-field Expressways

Systemic interventions are being made under the Bharatmala Pariyojana, to achieve substantial improvements in the NH network with the completion of the program:

• Develop 50 Economic Corridors of about 26,000 km - from 6 Corridors currently, including the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) and North-South and East-West (NS-EW) Corridors
• Increase the 4-lane NH linkage from 300 districts to 550 districts in the country
• NH network to carry 70-80 per cent of total road traffic - up from the current 40 per cent
• Increase the vehicular speed by 20-25 per cent and reduce supply chain costs by 5-6 per cent

In addition to the above, the program envisages to execute the following:

• About 8,000 km of Inter Corridors and about 7,500 km of Feeder Routes have been identified for improving effectiveness of Economic Corridors, GQ, and NS-EW Corridors
• 28 cities have been identified for development of Ring Roads to decongest the traffic passing through cities and enhance logistic efficiency
• 125 choke points and 66 congestion points have been identified for their improvements
• 35 locations for the development of Multimodal Logistics Parks have been identified to reduce congestion on proposed Corridors, enhance logistic efficiency, and reduce cost of freight movement

In progress

Under the BharatMala project, approved for an estimated cost of Rs 6,92,324 crore (including other ongoing schemes), about 65,000 km of National Highways are to be constructed in two phases. A total of around 24,800 km is being developed in Phase-1 of the Bharatmala Pariyojana, as approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in October 2017, and was to be implemented over a five-year period, that is, 2017-18 to 2021-22. The Phase-1 also includes the construction of 10,000 km of balance road works under NHDP, taking the total length of road development under the first phase to 34,800 km, at an estimated outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crore.

Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-1 is expected to generate roughly 14.2 crore man-days of employment during the construction phase, and the increased level of economic activities, enabled by the development of Economic Corridor network shall lead to the generation of about 22 million permanent jobs. As of December 2021, a total of 574 road projects with an aggregate length of 19,926 km, and costing Rs 5.98 lakh crore were approved under Phase-1 of the program.  Of this, road length of 6,976 km has already been completed. This corresponds to 35 per cent of the approved project length.

Set to gather pace

While there has been appreciable progress on the award and construction of highways in the country in recent years, including a record 37 km per day highway construction in 2020-21 (from 12 km per day in 2014-15), the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the project completion deadline. However, the government has continued its focus on key infrastructure sectors in its Budget 2022-23, especially highways, setting an ambitious target of expanding the National Highway network by 25,000 km over the fiscal year. The budgetary allocation to Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been increased by 68 per cent to Rs 1.99 lakh crore from Rs 1.18 lakh crore in FY 2021-22. India aims to spend US$ 1.4 trillion between the period of 2019-20 and 2024-25 under the National Infrastructure Pipeline, of which, US$ 280 billion shall be spent on the roads and highways sector. The National Monetisation Pipeline launched in 2021, against the backdrop of the economic and fiscal losses caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic, also lays out a lucrative pipeline of asset and asset classes under various infrastructure sectors, where private institutional investment is being invited by the government. Out of the US$ 81 billion pipeline, roads and highway assets have the largest share at 27 per cent. These, coupled with a strong pipeline of projects under the Bharatmala Pariyojana, would ensure the sustenance of the rapid pace of road construction in the country.

- Kritika Singh

Sr. Manager, Invest India

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