Highways project Bharatmala expected to be launched by October

A labourer works at the construction site of the Delhi-Jaipur national highway in Manesar in the northern state of Haryana, India, July 9, 2015. To match insight INDIA-INFRASCTRUCTURE/ REUTERS/Adnan Abidi - RTX1KM9A

The Modi government’s ambitious programme, Bharatmala, to construct a network of national highways is expected to receive Cabinet’s nod by next month, after which the first phase would be launched by the Centre.

The programme, that will subsume Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s National Highway Development Project (NHDP) of 1998, will connect border areas, coastal areas, backward areas and regional and tourist destinations. The first phase of the umbrella programme is expected to see construction of 20,000 km.

‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’ had received nod from Public Investment Board in the month of June after which it was referred to Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

Sources said that the project is likely to receive the cabinet committee’s approval by October and the launch would be done thereafter. The claim could not be independently verified.

Centre has estimated a fund requirement of Rs 6.92 lakh crore, by 2022, for the development of national highways under proposed phase 1 of Bharatmala and other schemes.

Also read: Bharatmala, others NH schemes require Rs 6.92 lakh cr by FY22

Ministry of road transport and highways has said that 20 per cent of the total expenditure will be met through private investment and expected monetisation.

The financing of the project would also include gross budgetary support (GBS), including NH share of central road fund (CRF) cells, toll remittance, expected monetisation of NHs through toll operate transfer (TOT) route, market borrowings by National Highways Authority of India and private sector investment.

Union minister for roads and highways, Nitin Gadkari, has stressed that cost of logistics in the country has to be reduced from the current 18 per cent.

High logistics cost has been one of the major bottlenecks in trade and business which, the minister feels, must be addressed by developing “innovative methods for transport”.