The construction of roads and highways in India gained momentum in the 2000s. Now, the country has the second largest road network in the world after the US.
Zanskar Highway, an under construction road in Leh, September 23, 2021; (Photo: Getty Images)
aA 75-year-old youth, India has a formidable road network—the second largest in the world—spanning 63 lakh km (Basic Road Statistics Report in India, 2018-19). At the time of independence, the country’s road network—which includes state and national highways (NH), and rural roads—was barely 4 lakh km. According to government data, the pace of construction of roads and highways has increased by 300 percent in the last seven years. Now, India has 4.87 km of road per 1,000 people.
During the decade 2007-2017, the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was for urban roads, followed by rural roads and national highways. But the pace of construction has declined since the end of last year. It fell to the lowest in four years at 21.3 km per day during the April-November period of financial year (FY) 2021. It was 24.8 km/day in the same period in FY15 and 24 km/day in FY19. Roads and highways have been one of the most resilient sectors during the pandemic, among other projects, from the Golden Quadrilateral project launched in 2001 to the ambitious Bharatmala project, which aims to build 50 new national corridors. But the challenge for this sector has been to bring in private players in road and highway construction. Land acquisition also remains a challenge—Bharatmala, for example, is running behind schedule. Its first phase is likely to be completed by 2025-26.
Private sector investment in road construction in 2020-21 and 2019-20 stood at Rs 12,475 crore and Rs 21,925 crore respectively. The private sector investment in this as of November 2021 was Rs 15,164 crore. The big challenge is to maintain the pace of construction, bring investment in an area that is largely dependent on government spending and further streamline the land acquisition processes. Public and private investment grew at a CAGR of 21.8 per cent between 2012-13 and 2016-17, but the share of private sector investment in the construction of national highways declined from 48.35 per cent in 2012-13 to 17.37 per cent in 2016. -17, while public sector investment increased from 51.65 per cent in 2012-13 to 82.63 per cent in 2016-17.
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At the time of independence, the total length of National Highways was 21,378 km which is now more than 1.40 lakh km. National highways constitute about 2.3 percent of the total road network. They carry about 40 percent of the road traffic.
