= One lakh crore rupees
= ₹1 lakh crore
...
= Rs 1,000,000,000,000 in Western notation"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
Wonder what a green-field expressway is.
I hope they build a few rest stops too, with real toilets.
I dont know, but over the last 20 years Ive seen the Chinese infrastructure grow by leaps and bounds. I dont see pics of chinese hanging on top of buses, hanging all over their trains.
India needs to upgrade their infrastructure big big time
Looks like toll roads. Better than nothing, slightly.
By Economic Times Bureau
NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday approved the biggest highway construction plan so far in the country, to develop approximately 83,677 km of roads at an investment of Rs 6.92 lakh crore by 2022. The highway construction programme is aimed at pushing economic activity and generating at least 14.2 crore man-days across the country over the next five years.
The programme includes the Bharatmala scheme, under which 34,800 km of highways would be constructed at the cost of Rs 5.35 lakh crore, finance secretary Ashok Lavasa said. Under Bharatmala, the road transport and highways ministry will construct 9,000 km of economic corridors across the country.
The project also entails constructing 6,000 km long inter corridor and feeder routes, 2,000 km of border and international connectivity roads, 5,000 km to be upgraded under the national corridor efficiency programme, 800 km of greenfield expressways, 10,000 km under the national highway development programme and 2,000 km of coastal and port connectivity roads.
"The economic corridors would ensure that time taken for transporting goods from manufacturing sectors is reduced," Lavasa said. He said the road transport and highways ministry has already identified new alignment for corridors, which would open new areas for development. "We'll be improving road connectivity in northeast and other border states to facilitate international trade," Lavasa said.
The government will fund Bharatmala project through market borrowings, central road funds, monetising government-owned road assets, and budgetary allocation. "For the highway construction programme, Rs 2.09 lakh will come from market borrowing, Rs 1.06 lakh crore is expected to come through private investment and Rs 2.19 lakh crore will come from the central road fund and through toll operate transfer model," Lavasa said.
In addition to 34,800 km under Bharatmala, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will parallel implement the balance works of 48,877 km roads under other current schemes with an outlay of Rs 1.57 lakh crore, Lavasa said. This will be financed by providing Rs 97,000 crore from CRF and Rs 59,000 crore as gross budgetary support.
The government has assigned NHAI, National Highway and Industrial Development Corporation (NHIDCL) and state public work departments for the highway projects. "These organisations would be given sufficient delegation of powers so that there's speedy implementation," Lavasa said.
In additional, central and state governments would spend another Rs 88,185 crore in the next three years towards constructing rural roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. The government has also sanctioned almost Rs 11,000 crore towards the development of roads in states with left wing extremism.
83,000 kilometers
That is a bit more than twice around the entire circumference of the earth.
By Dipak K Dash
NEW DELHI: The government is set to approve the biggest ever highway development plan to develop and expand approximately 83,000 km of roads at an investment of Rs 6.9 lakh crore by 2022 on Tuesday. The proposal on the Cabinet's agenda is aimed at pushing economic activity and generating at least 32 crore man days across the country in the next five years.
The announcement will include the new 28,400 km Bharatmala highway programme connecting border areas, improving international, port and coastal connectivity besides improving highway corridors connecting key economic and commercial hubs besides at least 800 km of expressways. Sources said the focus of the entire plan is to improve speed of traffic flow on key corridors by providing uniform four-lane roads between two identified points. Most of these corridors will be shorter and access-controlled for faster movement of cargo vehicles.
Due to poor road conditions, narrow width and congestion points, a truck in India covers on an average 250-300 km daily in comparison to 700-800 km in developed countries. "The new highway development programme is both building roads and improving mobility to reduce logistic cost. Better road network and rolling out of smart-tag based tolling will transform the road transport sector", said an official privy to the government's plan.
This will perhaps be the biggest government announcement before the upcoming assembly elections. According to the ministry's estimates, construction of 10,000 km of highways annually has the potential of generating four crore mandays and the mega highway development programme can be used to counter the allegation that the government has failed to create employment opportunities.
TOI, on June 27, had first reported about the Public Investment Board (PIB) clearing the proposal and the funding pattern. Considering there is less appetite for private investment, sources said, more than 70% of the works will be through government funding. About one-third of the investment will come from fuel cess, over one-fourth from market borrowing and the rest from budgetary support, private investment and auctioning of completed highways.
National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) has already prepared detailed project reports (DPRs) for about 10,000 km of the identified network, which will help faster roll out of projects.
As reported by TOI early this year, the PIB had approved empowering the NHAI Board, with representatives from ministries and Niti Aayog, to appraise and approve projects up to Rs 2,000 crore instead of taking every project costing more than Rs 1,000 crore to the Cabinet for its approval. "Once the Cabinet approves the umbrella scheme, NHAI will be empowered to clear each project. The same procedure was followed when Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had approved the Golden Quadrilateral development programme for faster roll out of projects," said a source.
Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18 explains what one should expect over the next few years as part of highway development programme.
By CNBC-TV18
The cabinet yesterday took two big ticket decision, one was recapitalisation of banks and two, was an almost Rs 7 lakh crore push for infrastructure, specifically to the road and highways sector.
Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18 explains what one should expect over the next few years as part of highway development programme.
He touched upon various issues related to highway developments – the Bharatmala Project, NHAI awards, electric vehicles, road safety etc.
With regards to Bharatmala Project he said it covers about 60,000 kms of which 35,000 kms is part of Phase I. He said they aim to get this project off the ground by December 2018.
Talking about awards by NHAI, he said he is not satisfied with the award target of 6000 kms but expect a target of 10000 kms by March, 2018.
He is also confident of closing the current financial year at 30 km per day and expect to hit 40 km per day by end of next financial year.
He is confident that there would be no problem of raising funds from the market to fund various projects because many pension funds, insurance funds and foreign investors have shown interest.
The Bharatmala Project would be funded via CRF funds, budgetary allocations and monetisatin of projects, he said.
NHAI bonds could be one of way of raising funds, said Gadkari adding that he is confident of raising Rs 5 lakh crore via these bonds because NHAI projects are economically viable and has a AAA rating.
He said further clarity on NHAI bond issue would come in one months' time.
Verbatim transcript of interview in original.
By Megha Manchanda
The first project under Bharatmala is expected to be awarded by the end of next year as the land acquisition process and detailed project reports for the mega infrastructure scheme are underway, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday. Gadkari said the government was hopeful that the scheme would elicit a great response from the private sector.
All the projects under Bharatmala would be technically, financially and economically appraised by an empowered project appraisal and technical scrutiny committee under the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, he said. Guidelines for the scrutiny of projects have already been laid down.
He said a “grand challenge” mechanism would be adopted to encourage state government participation for implementing the programme, and the projects supported by states would be taken up on priority.
The minister said the programme was designed to bridge the gaps in the existing highways infrastructure so as to make the movement of man and material more efficient. Special attention, he said, had been paid to fulfil the connectivity needs of backward and tribal areas, areas of economic activity, places of religious and tourist interest, border areas, coastal areas, and trade routes with neighbouring countries.
He said once the scheme was implemented, 70-80 per cent freight would move along the national highways as against the current 40 per cent.
The Union Cabinet on Tuesday cleared the Rs 7-lakh-crore Bharatmala programme to construct 20,000 km of highways connecting western and eastern parts of the country. In the first phase, which will be undertaken for over three to five years, it would cost Rs 5.5 lakh crore. The average cost of constructing one km of road is Rs 13 crore.
Around 24,800 km of roads are being considered in the Phase-I. In addition, the programme would include 10,000 km of balance road works under NHDP, taking the total to 34,800 km at an estimated cost of Rs 5,35,000 crore.
The programme has identified around 26,200 km of economic corridors that have heavy freight traffic, of which 9,000 km is being taken up for development in Phase-I at an estimated cost of Rs 1,20,000 crore.
The gross budgetary support for Bharatmala and the existing schemes from 2017-18 to 2021-22 would be restricted to Rs 2,37,024 crore from Central Road Fund (CRF), Rs 59,973 crore as budgetary support, Rs 34,000 crore from expected monetisation through ToT route, and Rs 46,048 crore collected as Toll-Permanent Bridge Fee Fund (PBFF) by the NHAI. The roads that would be built under Bharatmala would include state highways, national highways, and some state roads.
Bharatmala is the second-largest highways project after the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) that saw the development of about 50,000 km.
The programme that was mooted in April 2015 aims to connect Gujarat and Rajasthan, then move to Punjab and cover Jammu and 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 aim is to improve the speed of traffic flow on key corridors by providing uniform four-lane roads between two identified points. These corridors will permit faster movement of cargo vehicles. According to government estimates, the construction of 10,000 km of highways annually has the potential of generating four crore man-days of work.
Bharatmala was proposed on the lines of Sagarmala in which a string of ports will be built in the Indian Ocean to protect maritime interests. The government plans to improve road connectivity not just to coastal and border areas but also backward areas.
By Express Web Desk
Bharatmala Project, which was given the nod by the Union Cabinet on October 25, is one of the biggest highway construction projects in India in history. The government plans to get the project rolling by December next year.
Bharatmala Project, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet on October 25, is the second largest highways construction project in the country since NHDP, under which almost 50,000 km or highway roads were targeted across the country. Bharatmala will look to improve connectivity particularly on economic corridors, border areas and far flung areas with an aim of quicker movement of cargo and boosting exports.
The project is expected to create nearly 100 million man days of jobs during the road construction and subsequently 22 million jobs as a result of the increased economic activity across the country. The construction will be billed via several routes including debt funds, budgetary allocation, private investment, toll operator transfer model etc.
Bharatmala includes economic corridors of around 9,000 km, inter-corridor and feeder routes of around 6,000 km, 5,000 km roads under the National Corridors Efficiency Program, border and international connectivity roads of around 2,000 km, coastal and port connectivity roads of around 2,000 km, expressways of around 800 km and 10,000 km of NHDP roads. The total length in phase 1 comes to around 34,800 km.
Bharatmala project will start in Gujarat and Rajasthan, followed by Punjab and subsequently traversing the Himalayan belt through Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur (next to the Indo-Burmese border) and then to Mizoram. Northeastern states have been given special focus in the project and international trade is a key aspect as well.
The newer roads are expected to increase the speed of vehicles and decrease supply chain costs from the current average 18 per cent to six per cent. The Union Cabinet gave the nod to two big ticket infra projects on Tuesday with an outlay of Rs 6.92 lakh crore out of which Bharatmala Pariyojana shared Rs 5.35 lakh crore. It will also subsume 10,000 km roads under the National Highway Development Project (NHDP) program.
While the country reels under the impact of GST and demonetisation, Gadkari presented a meticulous plan to cut down costs and create jobs. “Bharatmala will bring down logistics cost, impacting exports and investment,” Gadkari said.
The main agencies tasked with the construction are the National Highways Authority of India, National Highway and Industrial Development Corporation and state public works departments.
By Manu Balachandran
After almost three-and-a-half years in power, the Narendra Modi government is making an audacious bet on infrastructure to try and kickstart India’s sputtering economy.
In the next five years, the government plans to build 83,677 kilometres (km) of roads by spending a staggering Rs7 lakh crore ($108 billion). This is the largest-ever outlay for road construction in India and the length of the proposed roads is more than twice the Earth’s circumference (around 40,000km). In all, India has about 96,260km of national highways, while the total length of all roads is about 3.3 million km.
The plan includes the Bharatmala Pariyojana, involving an extensive highway network of 34,800km connecting India’s western border to the eastern one, with a likely investment of Rs5,35,000 crore. Another Rs157,000 crore will go towards building 48,877km of roads by the state-run National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the ministry of road transport and highways.
“The huge spending on infrastructure announced today will give a fillip to private sector investment,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said in a press conference on Oct. 24.
India, the world’s fastest-growing economy until earlier this year, hit an air pocket after the Narendra Modi government decided to demonetise two of the country’s high-value currency notes last November and introduced a new tax regime in July. Private investment and consumption have shrunk while industrial production has remained low. The agriculture sector, too, has been in the doldrums. So it’s now up to the government to increase public sector spending to turn around the economy.
India’s road sector began recovering only recently from years of stagnation. Between 2012 and 2014, the government could only award 5,000km of road projects. Prime minister Modi, on the other hand, promised to build 41km a day after he came to power. However, his government has been constructing only 25km a days so far, totalling around 8,200km in the last financial year. Given that performance, building 16,700km of roads every year for the next five years to meet the 83,677km target won’t be easy for the government.
This slow expansion is also due to a lack of private sector funding, even as the government has tried out various financing models. This includes the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) model where road-building is done by private developers and funded by the government. It has also devised the new hybrid annuity model wherein the government would share project costs with the private sector in a 40:60 ratio.
“The road sector has one of the highest economic and employment multiples in the country. In that sense, this is possibly the best stimulus that we can get,” Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman at Gurugram-based infrastructure services company, Feedback Infra said. “With most of these projects likely to be undertaken by EPC and hybrid annuity, and the involvement of numerous agencies such as the national highways authority and state road agencies, it is possible to achieve the target of 83,000km in the next five years.”