The Union government may announce a new Vision 2047 plan for the highways sector in the upcoming budget, under which India will embark on a decade-long exercise to build roads worth more than ₹20 trillion, two persons aware of the development said.
With the Centre suspending project awards under the flagship highway development scheme Bharatmala-1 late last year, there has been a slowdown in award of road projects and construction of highways. The new Vision 2047 plan will fix new targets and restart project awards with an aim to build at least 50,000 km of access-controlled highways over the next 10-12 years at an investment of over ₹20 trillion.
“The proposal on Vision 2047 plan for highways has been finalised by the ministry of road transport and highways a few months ago, but elections and formation of the new government had delayed its approval. It may now be announced as part of the budget proposals so that there are no more delays in project awards,” said the first person quoted above, requesting anonymity.
Queries sent to the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) remained unanswered till press time.
The pace of road awards has slowed considerably since late last year when the government made it clear that balance project awards under the first phase of Bharatmala and commencement of Bharatamala-2 would remain suspended and a new Vision scheme would replace the two. In FY24, highway contract awards fell to 8,581 km against a target of 13,290 km.
This year, the situation is even worse with prime road developer National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) awarding a mere 4 km stretch of highway during April-June and just about 2 km of highway in July so far. In the same quarter last year, it had awarded projects to to build 611 km of roads.
Early approval of the MoRTH Vision 2047 plan is also being eagerly awaited to begin construction activities for new-age highways that would connect every part of the country, providing commuters access to these faster expressways at 100-125 km from any point in the country. Also, the new plan would kickstart private investment in highway projects under the BoT (build, operate, transfer) model that is being revived in a big way this year after more than a decade. The plan is to have at least a third of highways built in the country under Vision plan by the private sector.
While the plan for 50,000 km of access-controlled highways would be the prime mover for Vision 2047, it will set a target of constructing more than 75,000 km of highways by 2037, said the second person quoted earlier, on the condition of anonymity. Currently, just about 4,000 km of centrally-funded access-controlled highways exist in the country.
The plan itself will set long-term goals for MoRTH while breaking down infrastructure development programmes into five-year and one-year targets, specifying the kind of work in each year and likely investment required for the same. Accordingly, the plan is to have 30,000 -35,000 km of highways, including access-controlled ones by 2030, and the remainder by 2037.
The leftover projects from Bharatmala-1 would be integrated with Vision 2047 of the ministry so that unfinished projects under the earlier programme is taken up afresh for completion, said the person.
Conceived in 2017, Bharatmala-1 envisaged construction of 34,800 km of highways connecting various economic centres of the country. Under it, contracts for 27,384 km roads have been awarded so far. The remaining 7,500 km would now be aligned with Vision 2047 along with the proposed construction of about 5,000 km under Bharatmala phase 2.
The Vision 2047 plan would also set specific targets for developing green highways in the country with infrastructure that would support green mobility on Indian roads. The first such initiative is being introduced in the under-construction Delhi-Mumbai expressway project.
“…the highway construction sector in India presents a robust outlook, with government committing record capex to infrastructure. This will be aided by proactive measures, including streamlined processes and simplified approvals,” Davinder Sandhu, chairman, Primus Partners, said.
The Vision 2047 plan of the highways ministry would also provide a roadmap for making Indian roads safer, with policy prescription for adoption of latest technology to map highways with respect to black spots or accident-prone zones and undertake rectification work immediately. It will also include proposals for an introduction of a nationwide cashless treatment scheme to cater to road-accident victims.
“The aim of the government seems to be to develop sustainable, efficient, safe and internationally comparable quality of road infrastructure in general and national highways infrastructure in particular to achieve enhanced connectivity,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
The ministry has worked out its Vision 2047 document with the hope that record-high budgetary allocations for the sector would be maintained by the finance ministry in coming years to complete some of the capital-intensive and long-gestation projects. In the current financial year, MoRTH has been allocated a record budget of ₹2.7 trillion, most of which would be used by state-owned highway developer NHAI.