On October 24,
the Government of India has announced to build 83,677 km of roads, highways,
green-field expressways and bridges with an investment of Rs. 6.92 Lakh crore
over the next few years. This also includes first phase of the Bharatmala
programme that would involve construction of 34,800 km of highways by 2022.
Projects
In 1998, the NDA
government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee had launched the famous National Highways
Development Programme (NHDP). This project was managed / implemented by NHAI in
total seven phases, resulting in development of about 50,000 km of National Highways
in the country. The key projects under NHDP were Golden Quadrilateral Project
connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata; North-South and East-West
corridors and several other highways. The NHDP is expected to close in 2018 and
whatever balance work is remaining (around 10,000 kilometres) would be subsumed
in the Bharatmala.
What is connectivity programmes?
Currently, there are three infrastructure connectivity
programmes in India viz. Bharatmala, Sagarmala and Sethu Bharatam.
·
Bharatmala will
be the umbrella road development programme which shall cover various categories
of roads.
·
Sagarmala is a
port development project comprising road, rail, inland and coastal waterways to
improve port connectivity and port-led development.
·
The objective of
Sethu Bharatam is to make all national highways free of railway crossings by
2019
Bharatmala Phase-I
Currently, the government has approved phase-I of
Bharatmala which includes development of 34,800 km of various roads and
highways. These include:
·
Balance NHDP
works (10,000 km)
·
Economic
Corridors (9,000 km)
·
Inter Corridor
and Feeder Routes (6,000 km)
·
National
Corridors Efficiency Improvement (5,000 km)
·
Border Roads and
International Connectivity (2,000 km)
·
Coastal Roads
and Port Connectivity (2,000 km)
·
Greenfield
Expressways (800 km)
·
Total = 34,800
km.
·
The outlay is
shown in below table:
No.
|
Components
|
Length
|
Outlay
|
a.
|
Economic
corridors development
|
9,000
|
1,20,000
|
b.
|
Inter-corridor &
feeder roads
|
6,000
|
80,000
|
c.
|
National
Corridors Efficiency improvements:
|
5,000
|
100,000
|
d.
|
Border &
International connectivity roads
|
2,000
|
25,000
|
e.
|
Coastal &
port connectivity roads
|
2,000
|
20,000
|
f.
|
Expressways
|
800
|
40,000
|
Total:
|
24,800
|
385,000
|
|
Balance road
works under NHDP
|
10,000
|
1,50,000
|
|
Total
|
34,800
|
5,35,000
|
|
*length in km,
outlay in Rs. crore
|
·
The project is
part of the government’s plan on point-to-point expressways and border road
connectivity. The aim is to improve the speed of traffic flow on key
corridors by providing uniform four-lane roads between two identified points.
The Project also aimed at connecting economic corridors, boosting border and
international connectivity, as well as connecting coastal roads and
inter-linking ports.
·
Bharatmala
project was first mooted in April 2015. It begins from Gujarat and Rajasthan,
then move to Punjab and cover Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh,
Uttarakhand followed by Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and further to Sikkim, Assam,
Arunachal Pradesh, and right up to the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur and
Mizoram. The west to east connectivity programme would look like a garland on
India’s map – thus its name Bharatmala.
NHDP Vs Bharatmala
The government will mobilize resources for Bharatmala
through four different routes viz. market borrowings, central road fund,
monetizing government-owned road assets and budgetary allocation. Of the total
amount, Rs. 2 Lakh Crore are to be raised as debt from market borrowings, while
Rs. 1 Lakh crore will be used from the accrued money in Central Road Fund and
toll collections by NHAI.
Regarding difference in the funding patterns – Firstly, NHDP was over-dependent on multilateral funding
and market borrowings and needed the government to service a huge debt. In
Bharatmala project also, the government may go for soft loans
from multilateral funding institutions but that does not seem to be
massive {we yet to see official documents on this}. Secondly, in NHDP, there was huge share of PPP
projects. In Bharatmala, it appears that government will fund most of the
project but some works will be taken up using PPP approach also. It is
estimated that around 80% of Bharatmala will be government funded, engineering
procurement and construction (EPC) model and rest will be mainly hybrid-annuity
public private partnership.
Authorities
For speedy and timely execution of the project apart from
ministry of road transport and highways and state-run firms—NHAI and National
Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL and respective
state public works departments (PWDs) will be worked together in execution of
the project.
Benefits of the project
The key benefits include logistics, cost and economic
activity and employment generation.
·
Currently, we
have 6 national corridors. Completion of Bharatmala will give the country total
50 national corridors. Currently, 40% freight moves along National Highways, it
will be boosted to 70-80%. It will connect 550 districts to national highways;
this number stands at 300 now. Overall, this will boost India’s Logistic
Performance Index (LPI).
·
The programme
will also help generate a large number of direct and indirect employment in the
construction activity, the development of highways amenities and also as part
of the enhanced economic activity in different parts of the country that will
result from better road connectivity .
·
This in turn
makes government’s other schemes like ‘Make-in-India’ more competitive and
attractive to investors.
·
It is estimated
that the project will generate 142 million man-days of jobs
·
The economic
corridors developed under this project would ensure that time taken for
transporting goods from manufacturing sectors is reduced.
·
The Coastal
roads proposed under this project will boost Tourism
·
As the GST aims
to create a common market by dismantling inter-state tariff barriers. A robust
road infrastructure created under this project will help in that direction.
·
The Bharatmala
project is also expected to boost the associated industries like cement and
steel sectors; and generate lakhs of jobs.