To expedite infrastructure development, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has sought Cabinet approval for an investment worth Rs 22 lakh crore aimed at constructing approximately 30,600 kilometres under the Highway Development Plan by the fiscal year 2031-32.
The plan, submitted to the Finance Ministry and circulated to all major ministries last week, includes the construction of 18,000 km of expressways and high-speed corridors, the decongestion of 4,000 km of national highways around cities and the construction of strategic and international roads. About 35% of the investment will be made by the private sector.
According to reports, the master plan for highway development has been proposed in two phases. Officials attending the inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Anurag Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transportation and Highway (MoRTH) said the ministry has laid down the roadmap for tendering all phase-1 projects by 2028-29 and completing them by 2031-32. The estimated Rs 22 lakh refers to the first phase of the project.
The ministry has sought a 10% annual increase in the budgetary allocation for project implementation. In the interim budget, the government allocated Rs 2,78,000 crore to the ministry, an increase of 2.7% over the previous fiscal.
The financial estimate for the second phase of development of 28,400 km will be decided at a later date. According to the plan, the sanction and award of the routes of phase 2 will be completed by 2033-34 and the construction work will be completed by 2036-37.
The ministry pointed out that it has planned the development of highways and expressways after analysing the GSTN data, including the goods transported from point to point, and has also taken into account the transport of goods by rail.
The analysis of the GSTN data revealed that in the year 2021-22, nearly 73% of the freight transport will be carried by road, while rail will account for around 23%. The data also showed that for goods transported over a distance of less than 350 km, 82% were carried by road and for distances over 600 km, 62% were carried by road.
After completion of the project, the average speed of trucks on the national highway network will increase from the current 47 kmph to 85 kmph. In the US, the average speed on highways is over 100 kmph and in China, it is 90 kmph. The government expects that increasing the average speed will help India achieve its target of reducing logistics costs to 9-10% of GDP.
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