NH network in the country has increased from about 91,287 km in March, 2014 to about 1,46,145 km at present

NEW DELHI : Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari informed in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is primarily responsible for development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs). NH network in the country has increased from about 91,287 km in March, 2014 to about 1,46,145 km at present.

Ministry has laid focus on development of High-Speed Access Controlled Corridors and 4 Lane Road network in order to contribute towards development of economy through improved logistics efficiency. Length of 4 Lane plus NH network including High Speed Corridors has increased from about 18,371 km in March, 2014 to about 46,179 km so far. Project implementation has already been started on 21 green field access-controlled corridors including expressways in which work in about 3,336 km length has been completed.

Ministry has also emphasized on minimising less than 2 Lane NHs by upgrading these to Minimum 2 Lane / 2 Lane with Paved Shoulder. Accordingly, length of less than 2 Lane NHs has decreased from about 27,517 km in March, 2014 to about 14,870 km so far.

Ministry has identified 35 Multimodal Logistics Parks (MMLPs) for development as part of BMP to improve logistics efficiency to the Indian economy. 15 MMLPs have been prioritized for development under BMP-I.

Year-wise details of constructed NH length during the last nine years, along with pace of construction, are as under: –

Capital expenditure incurred by Ministry has been significantly increased from about Rs. 51,000 Crore in 2013-14 to more than Rs. 2,40,000 Crore in 2022-23 leading to country’s economic boost and early achievement of five trillion dollar economy of the country.

Ministry has also undertaken green initiatives by planting about 3.46 core trees since 2016, besides utilizing municipal waste for embankment construction, waste plastics in Bituminous construction and waste slag in Cement Concrete Construction towards carbon neutrality and sustainable development.

Key strategies adopted/employed to achieve the above remarkable growth and achievements of NH network in the country undertaken by Ministry are as under: –

1. Ministry resolved the inherited stalled projects (stalled projects till 2013-14) by close monitoring at the highest levels and also by suitable policy interventions like one time fund infusion, substitution, termination & repackaging etc.
2. Promoting Contractor’s Ecosystem by rationalising the projects and contract documents
3. All project planning including preparation of DPR mandated on PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP) Portal
4. Awarding projects after adequate preparation in terms of land acquisition and preconstruction activities
5. Simplified procedure for approval of GAD (General Arrangement Drawing) by Railways
6. Streamlining land acquisition process
7. Adoption of new technologies and continuously upgrading the standards and specifications
8. Raising resources from innovative financing models etc.
9. Relaxations in contract provisions under “Atmanirbhar Bharat” to improve liquidity of funds
10. Revamped dispute resolution mechanism
11. Portal based project monitoring leading to early resolution of issues
12. Periodic reviews of projects at various levels