How New India’s Highways Have Become Pavements to Prosperity In The Past 9 Years?

Anthony Foxx, former US secretary of transportation said “ Great roads don’t make America great, but America is great because of great roads”. Roads and highways are what make a nation great. The New India has understood that very evidently and has strived to go ahead and bring it to life.

India’s government is investing heavily in road construction. In the past 9 years, the government has spent over Rs. 10 trillion on road construction.

PM Narendra Modi, with his able minister Nitin Gadkari, from day 1 back since 2014 had started marching to build great roads in India on mission mode.

During 2017 this was all structured and brought under a project/program called Bharatmala Pariyojana. The Bharatmala Pariyojana is divided into five components:

• Economic Corridors: These are high-traffic corridors that will be upgraded to expressway standards.

• Inter Corridors: These are roads that connect economic corridors.

• Feeder Routes: These are roads that connect rural areas to economic corridors.

• Border Roads: These are roads that connect India to its neighboring countries.

• Coastal Roads: These are roads that connect India’s coastline.
   

The Bharatmala Pariyojana is expected to boost economic growth, improve connectivity, and reduce logistics costs. It is also expected to create millions of jobs.

Impact

• The Bharatmala Pariyojana project is expected to generate 10 million jobs by 2025.

• The construction of these highways has created jobs in a variety of sectors, including engineering, construction, and transportation.

• The increased trade and commerce that has resulted from these highways has created jobs in the manufacturing and service sectors.

Let’s do a quick comparison of numbers and stats from before 2014 to a period of the last 9 years between 2014 to 2023:

1. Highway construction:
   67 years after independence India built : 97,380 Kms of highway
   In the last 9 years India built: 47,325 Kms
   The total length of national highways has increased by 47.85% since 2014.

2. Safety (fatality rate on National highways):
   In 2014: 1.2 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled 
   In 2023: 0.7 deaths per 100 million VMT

3. Direct Employment:
   In 2014: 2.5M people were working in the highways sector
   In 2023: 4M people work in the highways sector.
   This is a rise of 60% in the direct employment in the sector.

4. Indirect Employment:
   Hotels In india on highways as of 2014: 12,000
   Hotels in India on highways as of 2023: 21,000

In the process of all this, India created many records too. Some of the recent records:

• Longest stretch of road laid continuously: In 2022, India created a Guinness World Record for laying a 75-kilometer stretch of road in a single lane in under five days. The road was built on the NH-53 section between Amravati and Akola in Maharashtra.

• Widest road in the world: The recently inaugurated 8-lane, 10-kilometer long Dwarka Expressway in Delhi is the widest road in the world. The road has a total width of 150 meters and is expected to reduce traffic congestion in the city.

• Largest single-day toll collection: In 2021, India collected a record of ₹1,100 crore (US$140 million) in tolls on a single day. The record was set on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which is one of the busiest highways in the country.

• Highest number of kilometers of roads constructed in a year: In 2020, India constructed a record of 11,000 kilometers of roads. This was the highest number of kilometers of roads constructed in a year by any country in the world.

• Longest continuously laid bituminous lane: In 2023, NHAI laid a 75-kilometer, single-lane bituminous concrete road on NH-53 between Amravati and Akola in Maharashtra in 105 hours and 33 minutes. This set a Guinness World Record for the longest continuously laid bituminous lane.

• Fastest road construction in a day: In 2021, NHAI constructed a 2.5-kilometer, four-lane concrete road in Solapur, India in 24 hours. This set a Guinness World Record for the fastest road construction in a day.

• Largest solar-powered road: In 2022, NHAI inaugurated the world’s largest solar-powered road in Gurugram, Haryana. The road is 750 meters long and has 2,300 solar panels that generate 310 kilowatts of electricity.

• Smartest highway: In 2023, NHAI inaugurated the country’s first “smart highway” in Delhi. The highway is equipped with sensors, cameras, and other technology that collect data on traffic conditions, weather, and other factors. This data is used to improve traffic flow, safety, and efficiency.

Detractors of the government have alleged that the government cut a lot of trees to build these highways. On the contrary the government has always tried to implement transplantation of trees instead of cutting them. The government’s initiatives to plant trees have also worked a lot!

The green cover in highways in India has increased significantly since 2014. The government has launched a number of initiatives to promote greening of highways, including the Green Highways Policy, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY), and the National Green Corps (NGC).

These initiatives have led to the planting of millions of trees along highways across the country. As a result, the green cover in highways has increased by an estimated 20% since 2014.

One of the noteworthy points in India’s campaign to build highways is that we have focused majorly in areas where highways were very less in number and connectivity was extremely poor. Biggest example of that was India’s north eastern region. Some of the numbers before and after 2014 show India’;s commitment to connect all regions of India.
 
The investment in road infrastructure in North Eastern India has increased by a staggering 1200% since 2014.
 
Between 1947 & 2014 India had built 12,000 Kms of highways in the Northeastern region. In the last 9 years we built 6,000 Kms of highways in the same region.This has directly boosted economic activity, connectivity and brought properity to the region and showcased the spirit of sabka saath sabka vikas sabka vishwas statement of out honorable prime minister Narendra Modi,

Prime Minister Modi has a clear vision for the highway sector. He wants to make India a global leader in road infrastructure, and he has set ambitious targets for road construction.

• The government plans to spend Rs. 20 trillion on road construction by 2024.

• The government plans to use innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data to improve the efficiency of road construction and maintenance.

• The government plans to make roads safer by reducing the number of accidents and fatalities.

I am confident that India’s highway sector will continue to grow and improve in the years to come. This will have a positive impact on the economy and the lives of Indians.