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Home , Bharatmala, Setu Bharatam

Pariyoiana: The Biggest Revolution in lndian Highways D. Dash

oads are the lifeline for any country and the lifeline needs to be better and stronger to improve mobility. boost Paving Roads economy and generate the jobs. Though the road network in of Development has increased from 3.99 lakh kilometers in 1951 to 56.03 lakh kilometers in 2016, a large share of them are less than two-lane while more than 70 per cent of the National Highways (NHs) in India are either two-lane or less.

The first maj or policy push to widen BHARATMALA the NHs was made 1998 during in PARIYOJANA: PROJECTFORSAFER government PHASE.I ROADS by launching the National Highways T5,35,000 crore Making all National Highways free Development Programme (NHDP), of railway levei crossings, by 2019, which had two major components for expanding by buitdine Rsilway Over of 5,846 kilometers of Golden highways sector Bridges/ Under Passes (GQ) connecting the with multi modal Quadrilateral Totaloutlayof four metro cities of , , integration and and 7,742 {20,800Crore kilometers' network connecting Srinagar to and Silchar to Porbandar. These networks are Bharatmala Pariyojana covering The massive highway development known as North-South and East-West of its corridors. 24,800 kilometers with an estimated programme has many firsts to expenditure of Rs 3.85 lakh crore. The credit; starting from preparation of The second big revolutionary govenrment has set March 2022target the plan to identifying the highway decision to upgrade NHs was taken for National Highways Authority of stretches and the new approach of in October 2017 when the Central India QTIHAI) for completion of the building roads on new alignment. government approved the phase-I programme. The Road Transport and Highways

The second big revolutionory decision lo upgrude NHs wos loken in Otlober 2017 when the Centrol governmenl upproved lhe phuse-l of Bhoroimolo Pariyoionu covering 24,800 kilometers with on estimoted expenditure of Rs 3.85 lokh crore....The mossive highwoy developmenl progromme hus mony firsts to its rredit; storting from preporoiion of the plon to idenlifying the highwoy strelches ond the new opprooch of building roods on new olignment. The Roud Trunsport ond Highwuys Minislry hos termed os oocrow flighl" olignments.

The author is a senior Delhi based joumalist

42 YOJANA February 2019 Considering that in addition to development of new corridors and feeder routes, there was a need to improve the throughput of the road stretches already developed under the NHDP, the preparatory work focused on de-congesting stretches by building of bypasses, ring roads, developing multimodal logistics parks to enable freight aggregation and disaggregation and effective modal shifts.

.'i Moreover, to cater to the need Rural road connectivity increased I of ;-xrai raad ,,, for infrastructure development in the from 56 './ ,n 2A74 ro 91q'. villages V IV *frnspeedconstr-ucri'o,n , border and coastal areas to India's ,rO Export-Import (EXIM) trade, the :'Lt- !s-a tU ol.o1 km/day highway development programme g? T5J' has provisioned for improving border \+- -::l:: roads based on strategic importance, 'oti'i4 particularly the ones connecting to trading points with India's neighbours National Highway Network Sneed of highway c.onstruction : s $ - , Bangladesh and Bhutan. The 1,21kh543 rt&,, i coastal road development and port- connectivity roads enhancement have been synergized with the Sagarmala programme. ffi:i[- .. $ Components ffiA*Slr*1ti*{3j}*;1*3ti*q*,*til3}i$j*}fe*8*i *d:*8:i$t${tl*&$"tfi1*f,f*&{t;Se*ct*}.,,Fr- l]?l*,iiu ilas out interesting . Economic Corridors: Ministry has termed "crow flight" This study brought alignments. facts of how different stretches of The origin-destination study which some corridors have infrastructure was commissioned with the aim One of the main reasons behind the asymmetry. For example, in the decision to go lor a massive revamp of improving logistics efficiency Mumbai-Kolkata corridor, a signiflcant identifled 44 new Economic Corridors. of country's NH network was that the stretch passing through is rolled out in 1998 had reached Some of the these are Mumbai-, NHDP two-laned and there are frequent lane a certain level maturity. was Mumbai-Kolkata, Chennai-, of It changes as well. If this entire stretch Bilaspur-Delhi, -Vij ayawada, essential to redeflne road development is not upgraded to at-least uniform - and -. and have a macro approach while 4-lane facility, the traffic movement The Economic Corridors are expected planning expansion of the national will not be smooth. This simply network. to carry 25 per cent of freight in the highways proved the point as to how and why coming years. As per the plan, these there was a dire urgent need to address The Process corridors along with national cor:ridors such asymmetry on corridors across (GQ and North South and East West) The government undertook a the country. detailed study of the goods (cargo) movement between the high-density corridors scientifi cally after identifying the Origin-Destination. Since one of the main aims of the programme was to improve cargo traffic flow, a considered strategy was formulated to develop new Economic Corridors. Improved logistics movement has a

I force multiplier effect on the economy. The Origin-Destination study also I considered the integration of economic corridors with the ongoing projects under NHDP.

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-_ 4 would form India's new Highway Grid. As per estimates, the National and Economic Corridors along with their inter-corridor and feeder routes would be able to carry 80 per cent of our freight traffic. . Inter Corridor and Feeder Routes: The origin destination study also identified a network of shorter inter corridor routes connecting two existing corridors and feeder routes to the corridor network. These roads are expected to carry around 20 per cent of freight. The effectiveness of the corridors can be improved by development ofthe feeder routes. . Improvement in Efficiency of National Corridors:

Currently, the NHs including the GQ and North South and East West corridor carry nearly 35 per cent of India's freight. A11 these stretches will be declared National Corridors. These stretches have shown high growth in traffic volumes by virtue of being the lifeline of India's highway . network. The average traffic in the six these choke points, new Ring Roads Development of Border and national corridors is more than 30,000 and bypasses/ elevated corridors will lnternational Connectivitv passenger car units (PCU). Under be built. In addition, multimodal Roads: the Bharatmala programme, all these logistics parks will be developed Around 3,300 kilometers ofborder stretches will be widened to 6-8 lanes. at critical economic nodes along roads have been identified to be built In the past few years, these National GQ and North South and East West corridors and widened along the intemational Corridors have also developed choke to enable efficient modal border for their strategic importance. points impacting logistics efficiency. transfers, freight aggregation and Around 2,000 kilometers of roads are So, to decongest and do away with disaggregation. required for connecting India's major highway corridor to international # Component Length Cost trade points to facilitate EXIM trade (km) (in Rs cr) with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and 1 Economic Corridors Development 9,000 120,000 Myanmar. 2 Inter Corridor and Feeder Route 6,000 80,000 . Development of Coastal and Port Development Connectivity Roads;

-1 National Corridors Effi ciency improvement 5,000 100,000 Under Bharatmala programme, (6-laning of GQ, NS-EW, removal of about 2,1 00 kilometers of coastal congestion points, development of logistics roads have been identified to be built parks, etc.) along the coast. These roads would 4 Border Roads and Intemational 2,000 25,000 boost both tourism and industrial Connectivity development of the coastal region. 5 Coastal Roads and Port Connectivity 2,000 20,000 These will also improve connectivity 6 Green field Expressways 800 40,000 to ports to facilitate EXIM trade. A major focus will be to improve linkage Tota 24,800 385,000 to state government owned and private Existing Projects under implementation 10,000 150,000 ports.

44 YOJANA February 2019 in turn, have three major benefits: improved vehicle utilization resulting in faster breakeven and hence lower freight cost per tonne per kilometer; improvement in fuel efficiency of Next Gen lnfra the vehicles due to lower idling for New lndia time, resulting in lower freight cost and faster and reliable freight transit, leading to a reduction in average inventory carried in freight. The network once developed will enable a reduction of 5-6 per cent & in the overall supply chain costs in the economy, the government has lndia's Longest Road estimated. Tunnel - the Chenani - In addition, upgradation of24,800 Nashri Tunnel in km of NH network in the first phase is expected to generate roughly 10 lndia's Longest Bridge - crore man-days of employment during the 9.15 km long Dhola - the construction phase and roughly 22 mrllion permanent jobs driven by Sadiya Bridge over River increased level of economic activities Brahmaputra in . due to development of the Economic 24x7 with Eastern Corridor network.

Funding for Programme A!61'JmryD19 The government has estimated a total expenditure of about Rs 6.92 . Development of Green-field Benefits: Rs 3.85 lakh Expressways: lakh crore including Bharatmala Pariyojana once crore for Bharatmala to complete all Bharatmala programme also implemented, will enable improvement ongoing works. About one-third of the envisages building expressways in efficiency of freight and passenger fund i.e. Rs 2.37 lakh crore will come close to the National and Economic movement on NHs. The network, from fuel cess and another Rs 60,000 Corridors where traffic has breached as identified under the Bharatmala crore will come as budgetary support. the 50,000 PCUs and there are multiple network, will cater to 80 per cent of The NHAI has started the programme choke points. About 1,900 km of the inter-district freight movement in of monetizing already completed these stretches have been identified the country. Moreover, the network projects and it targets to generate for development of green-field will connect 550 districts in the about Rs 34,000 crore. This scheme expressways. One such mega project country accounting for nearly 90 per is known as To11 Operate Transfer connecting Delhi with Mumbai has cent of the nation's GDP. Moreoveq (TOT), which means completed started taking shape. Expressways standardized wayside amenities on stretches are bid out to private players have limited entry and exit points and the corridors will come up, which will for collecting toll for certain years. there is no traffic signal or toll plaza on improve convenience of passenger The private players make upfront the main carriageway, which ensures movement signifi cantly. payment to NHAI to get these works. seamless and faster traffic movement. They are responsible for maintenance The development of economic of the highway stretches as well. To ensure there is no procedural corridors and the associated inter delay in approval and roll out of corridor and feeder routes will enable The government expects it will works, the government has empowered improvement in average speeds pump in about Rs 46,000 crore in NHAI Board to take decision and of vehicles by about 20-25 per the programme from its total toll approve projects. NHAI Board is an cent. Initiatives of building access collection. NHAI will borrow another inter-ministerial entity, which has controlled expressways with features Rs 2.09 lakh crore from market representation from Highways and of "closed tolling" system will further borrowing and the private investment Finance Ministries, Niti Aayog and improve the average speeds on is pegged at Rs 1.06 lakh crore. I the Highway Authority. The progress highways. Improvement in average so far has been satisfactory. speed of the freight vehicles will, (E -mail : dashrep o rt er@,gm ail. c o m)

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