In a big push for infrastructure development, road transport and highways ministry has sought Cabinet approval for INR 22 lakh crore investment in a highway development plan covering around 30,600 km by 2031-32.
The plan, submitted to finance ministry and shared with all key ministries last week, includes construction of 18,000 km of expressways and high-speed corridors, decongestion of 4,000 km national highways around cities and building of strategic and international roads. Around 35% of the investment will come from the private sector.
TOI has learnt that the master plan for highway development has been proposed in two phases. Officials participating in the inter-ministerial meeting chaired by road transport secretary Anurag Jain said the ministry has finalised the roadmap to tender all projects under phase-1 by 2028-29 and complete them by 2031-32. The INR 22 lakh crore estimate is for projects to be taken up in the first phase.
The ministry has requested 10% annual increase in budgetary allocation for project implementation. In the interim budget, govt had allocated INR 2,78,000 crore for the ministry, marking a 2.7% increase from the previous financial year.
The financial estimate in the second phase to develop 28,400 km will be determined later. As per the plan, sanctioning and awarding of stretches under phase-2 will be completed by 2033-34, with construction finishing by 2036-37.
The ministry highlighted how it has planned the development of NH and expressways after carrying out assessment of GSTN data, including commodities transported from point to point and has also taken into account transportation of cargo by trains.
The analysis of GSTN data showed nearly 73% of freight was transported by road in 2021-22, with railways accounting for around 23%. The data also showed that for commodities transported less than 350 km, 82% was moved by road, and for distances over 600 km, 62% was transported by road.
Once completed, the average travel speed of trucks on the national highway network will go up to 85 kmph from the current 47 kmph. The average travel speed on highways is over 100 kmph in the US and 90 kmph in China. Govt expects that increasing the average speed will help India achieve its target of reducing logistics costs to 9-10% of GDP.
High-speed corridors have been identified to ensure that such stretches are accessible within 100-150 km from any part of India. Currently, only 3,900 km of high-speed corridors are operational, and by 2026-27, this figure is expected to rise to around 11,000 km.
