As per the last available report published on 31st March 2019, India now has a road network of about 63,31,791 km, which is the second largest in the world. The National Highways increased from about 91,287 km in March, 2014 to about 1,46,145 km at present. The Ministry of Road Transport And Highways is primarily responsible for the development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs) across India.
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari in a written reply to the Lok Sabha recently, stated that the 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 minimizing 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.
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 adding to the target of becoming five trillion dollar economy.
Ministry has also undertaken green initiatives by planting about 3.46 cr trees since 2016, besides utilizing municipal waste for embankment construction, waste plastics in Bituminous construction and waste slag in Cement Concrete Construction.
Key strategies adopted/employed by MoRTH:
1) Ministry resolved the inherited stalled projects (stalled projects till 2013-14) by 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) Awarding projects after adequate preparation in terms of land acquisition and preconstruction activities.