Bharatmala

Bharatmala Pariyojana (Project) is a centrally-sponsored and funded Road and Highways project of the Government of India.[1] The total investment for 83,677 km (51,994 mi)[2] committed new highways is estimated at ₹5.35 lakh crore (US$75 billion), making it the single largest outlay for a government road construction scheme (as of December 2017). The project will build highways from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and then cover the entire string of Himalayan states - Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand - and then portions of borders of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alongside Terai, and move to West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and right up to the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur and Mizoram.[1] Special emphasis will be given on providing connectivity to far-flung border and rural areas including the tribal and backward areas. Bharatmala Project will interconnect 550 District Headquarters (from current 300) through a minimum 4-lane highway by raising the number of corridors to 50 (from current 6) and move 80% freight traffic (40% currently) to National Highways by interconnecting 24 logistics parks, 66 inter-corridors (IC) of total 8,000 km (5,000 mi), 116 feeder routes (FR) of total 7,500 km (4,700 mi) and 7 north east Multi-Modal waterway ports.[3]

Bharatmala
CountryIndia
Prime Minister(s)Narendra Modi
MinistryMinistry of Road Transport and Highways
Key peopleNitin Gadkari
Established31 July 2015 (2015-07-31)
StatusActive
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The ambitious umbrella programme will subsume all existing Highway Projects including the flagship National Highways Development Project (NHDP), launched by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998.

It is both enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of India schemes, such as Sagarmala, Dedicated Freight Corridors, Industrial corridors, UDAN-RCS, BharatNet, Digital India and Make in India.

Scope

Context

India's 54,82,000 km (3,406,000 mi) road network is second largest in the world, of which only 2% (~1,10,000 km) are national highways (NHs) carrying 40% road traffic.[4] Bharatmala phase-I will raise the NH connection to a total of 80% or 550 districts out of total 716 districts[5] from the current 42% or 300 districts connected to NH (dec 2017).[4] Mapping of Shortest Route for 12,000 routes carrying 90% of the India's freight, commodity-wise survey of freight movement across 600 districts, automated traffic surveys over 1,500+ points across the country, and satellite mapping of corridors to identify upgradation requirements for Bharatmala.[3]

NHIDCL

National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited(NHIDCL) was created in 2014 as a fully owned company of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways by the Government of India to expedite construction of National Highway projects with specific focus on Northeast India.[6][7]

Central Road Fund (CRF)

Central Road Fund (CRF) was created as a non-lapsable fund under the "Central Road Fund Act 2000", by imposing a cess on petrol and diesel, to build and upgrade National Highways, State roads, rural roads, railway under/over bridges etc, and national waterways.[8]

Impact

Bharatmala will significantly boost highway infrastructure:[3]

  • Raise 6 NC corridors to 50 corridors (6 NC and 44 EC)
  • Raise 40% freight to 80% freight on National Highways
  • Raise 300 districts to 550 districts connected by minimum 4-lane highways.

Components

National Highways Development Project (NHDP)

NHDP project covers 48,793 km (30,319 mi), including 28,915 km (17,967 mi) completed, 10,574 km (6,570 mi) under construction and 9,304 km (5,781 mi) left for award (as of May 2017).[9] The uncompleted projects under NHDP will also be subsumed in Bharatmala.[4]

National Corridors (NC)

National Corridors of India (NC) are 6 high volume corridors, including 4 in Golden Quadrilateral and 2 in North–South and East–West Corridors. Including Mumbai - Kolkata Highway (NH6), known as East Coast - West Coast Corridor, that carry 35% of India's freight.[4] Lane expansion to 6 to 8 laning, ring roads, bypasses and elevated corridors will be built in Bharatmala to decongest the National Corridors.[4] Logistics Parks will be set up along the NC.[4] Busiest stretches of National Corridors will be converted to the expressways.[4] 8,000 km (5,000 mi) inter-corridor and 7,500 km (4,700 mi) feeder routes will be built.[4] Additionally, 3,300 km (2,100 mi) of border roads and 2,000 km (1,200 mi) international highways will be built to connect 6 National Corridors to international trade routes.[4]

National Corridors Efficiency Program (NCEP)

National Corridors Efficiency Program (NCEP) entails 5,000 km (3,100 mi) phase-I decongestion of 185 choke points by 34 6-8 laning, 45 bypasses and 28 ring roads of 6 NC.[4][3]

New ring roads in Bharatmala include:

Economic Corridors

Economic Corridors of India or Industrial Corridors of India, 44 corridors 26,200 km (16,300 mi) were identified and 9,000 km (5,600 mi) will be taken up in phase-I, they exclude 6 National Corridors, they include:[3] 66 8,000 km (5,000 mi) inter-corridors (IC) & 116 7,500 km (4,700 mi) feeder routes (FR) were identified for Bharatmala.[3][4]

List of 44 economic corridors (EC):[3]

Logistics parks

24 logistics parks entailing 45% of India's freight traffic have been identified to be connected by Bharatmala economic corridors (EC), to develop hub-and-spoke model where hub-to-hub transport can be done with 30 tonne trucks and hub-to-spoke transport can be done with 10 tonne trucks. Currently all transport is point-to-point in 10 tonne trucks (2017).[3]

Northeast India connectivity

North East Economic corridor will connect 7 state capitals and 7 multimodal waterways terminals on Brahmaputra on the bharatmala route (slide 21).[3]

International connectivity

Look-East Connectivity will be further developed in the Bharatmala routes (slide 22).[3]

  • 24 Integrated check posts (ICPs)
  • Transit through Bangladesh to improve Northeast India
  • Integrating Bangladesh–Bhutan–Nepal-Myanmar–Thailand BIMSTEC corridors.

Finance
  • Total budget ₹692,324 crore (US$97 billion) for 5 years Bharatmala project from 2017-2022.[10]
    • ₹157,324 crore (US$22 billion) existing NH projects subsumed under Bharatmala, such as incomplete National Highways, SARDP-NE, Externally Aided Projects (EAP, e.g. world Bank and ADB), and Left Wing Extremism roads (LWE).[4]
    • ₹535,000 crore (US$75 billion) phase-I to be completed during 2017-dec 2019:[4][11][10]
      • ₹209,000 crore (US$29 billion) through market borrowings.[10]
      • ₹106,000 crore (US$15 billion) through private investments.[10]
      • ₹219,000 crore (US$31 billion) through the Central Road Fund (CRF) and tolls:[10]
        • ₹97,000 crore (US$14 billion) from CRF.[10]
        • ₹34,000 crore (US$4.8 billion) from new toll monetisation of completed highways.[10]
        • ₹46,048 crore (US$6.5 billion) from current toll fee from Toll-Permanent Bridge Fee Fund (PBFF)).[10]
  • Fy2017-18:[12]
  • 10,000 km (6,200 mi) highways built at the rate of 27 km/day,
  • ₹65,000 crore (US$9.1 billion) through allocation in the national budget.
  • Fy2018-19:[12]
    • 24,000 km (15,000 mi) will be awarded.
    • 12,000 km (7,500 mi) will be completed.
    • ₹163,000 crore (US$23 billion) total spend:
      • ₹78,000 crore (US$11 billion) through allocation in the national budget,
      • ₹60,000 crore (US$8.4 billion) through bonds,
      • ₹25,000 crore (US$3.5 billion) through toll monetisation of 30 completed highways.

Implementation phases: 2017-2022

The plan envisages the construction of 83,677 km (51,994 mi) roads, including 34,800 km (21,600 mi) of additional highways and roads across the country,[2] apart from an existing plan of building 48,877 km (30,371 mi) of new highways by the National Highway Authority of India.[12] Bharatmala has synergy with Sagarmala.[13]

Phase 1: 34,800 km by December 2022

The total length of 34,800 km (21,600 mi) highways will be constructed under phase-I by December 2022, including 24,800 km (15,400 mi) of new highways and another 10,000 km (6,200 mi) currently under-construction remaining incomplete under NHDP, compared to 19 years it took to upgrade almost same length of National Highways under NHDP.[14][13][2][15]

Road Type Total Length[4] Phase-I Length[4] Notes
Economic Corridors 26,200 km (16,300 mi) 9,000 km (5,600 mi) 44 EC corridors exclude 6 NC.[3]
Inter-corridor & feeder Routes 15,500 km (9,600 mi) 6,000 km (3,700 mi) 66 8,000 km (5,000 mi) inter-corridors (IC) & 116 7,500 km (4,700 mi) feeder routes (FR).[3][4]
National Corridors Efficiency Program 5,000 km (3,100 mi) 6-8 laning, bypasses and ring roads of 6 NC.[4]
Border & International connectivity roads 5,300 km (3,300 mi) 2,000 km (1,200 mi) 3,300 km (2,100 mi) of border roads and 2,000 km (1,200 mi) to connect 6 national corridors to international trade routes, such as BIMSTEC, MIT and BIN (Bangladesh-India-Nepal).[4]
Coastal & Port connectivity roads 2,000 km (1,200 mi) Synergy with Sagarmala.
Expressways 1,600 km (990 mi) 800 km (500 mi) NC stretches converted to expressway.[4]
Total under Bharatmala Pariyojana 24,800 km (15,400 mi)
NH remaining under NHDP 10,000 km (6,200 mi) 10,000 km (6,200 mi)
Total to be built or upgraded 83,677 km (51,994 mi)[2] 34,800 km (21,600 mi)

Phase-II: 48,877 km (expected 2024)

Multimodal logistics parks. It will make current corridors more effective & will improve connectivity with north east and leverage synergy with inland waterways

See also
Similar rail development
Similar roads development
Similar ports and river transport development
Similar air transport development
Highways in India
General

References
  1. "Bharat Mala: PM Narendra Modi's planned ₹14,000 crore (US$2.0 billion) road from Gujarat to Mizoram", The Economic Times, New Delhi, 29 April 2015
  2. "Ministry proposes construction of 20,000 km of roads under Bharat Mala project", The Economic Times, New Delhi, 9 January 2016
  3. Bharatmala presentation
  4. BHARATMALA PARIYOJANA, PHASE-I
  5. Directory of districts in India.
  6. National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited to award first project for North-East in October, Economic Times, 9 Oct 9 2014.
  7. NHIDCL intro.
  8. What is Central Road Fund (CRF)?, Indian Economy.
  9. "About NHDP | National Highways Authority of India, Government of India". nhai.gov.in. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  10. new release
  11. "Govt plans Bharat Mala, a 5,000km road network", The Times of India, New Delhi, 30 April 2015
  12. Transport ministry seeks Rs 78,000 crore to help fund Bharatmala, Economic Times, 24 Dec 2017.
  13. Nitin Gadkari press conference highlights: BharatMala, SagarMala to be 'varmala' of India, says minister, First Post, 25 Oct 2017.
  14. "First phase of Bharatmala Pariyojana to start by end of 2018: Gadkari". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  15. "Highway construction target for Nitin Gadkari-led Road Transport Ministry: Is 30 km per day too much of a stretch?". The Financial Express. 5 June 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
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