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The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has confirmed that no new projects will be initiated under the Bharatmala Pariyojana, its flagship highway development programme. Approved by the Cabinet in 2017, Phase 1 of the project covers 34,800 km across 31 states and union territories. However, only 26,425 km-76% of the sanctioned length-has been awarded for construction. The initiative has faced significant delays and cost overruns, leading to its projected completion being pushed to 2027-28. As of the past month, 55% of the awarded length has been completed, with expressways, border roads, and economic corridors in various stages of progress.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has mentioned in its recent annual report that although 76% of the sanctioned project length under Bharatmala Pariyojana has been set for construction, no new projects will be executed under the scheme. Advertisement
Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-1 sanctioned by the Cabinet in 2017 is for a total length of 34,800 km spanning 31 states and union territories, encompassing more than 550 districts. As of now, 26,425 km, which is 76% of the sanctioned length, has been entrusted for development as economic corridors, along with the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) and North-South and East-West (NS-EW) corridors. These are likely to take the lion's share of road freight movement.
The scheme has, however, been marred by delays and cost escalation, which analysts point out could be one reason why new projects are not being initiated under the scheme. Furthermore, 10,000 km of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) has been brought into this mega highway building program.
As per MoRTH's 2024-25 annual report, the aggregate awarded and approved length of 26,425 km has an estimated capital expenditure of INR 8,53,656 crore, including 6,758 km of outstanding NHDP projects. It also reiterates that no new projects will be undertaken under Bharatmala Pariyojana.
The project was estimated to cost around INR 5,35,000 crore and was initially scheduled to complete by September 2022. Delays in land acquisition and other issues, however, saw costs escalating multiple times, with the project set to complete anywhere between 2027 and 2028 now.
Figures in the report show that, during the first nine months of the FY 2024-25, 1,790 km of the project work was done through the last month. Overall, 19,201 km out of the bid 26,425 km is completed, corresponding to about 55% of the approved length for Phase-1 Bharatmala Pariyojana.
The project consists of 10 major components, such as economic corridors, inter-corridor and feeder roads, national corridors, the National Corridors Efficiency Improvement Programme, border and international connectivity roads, coastal roads, port connectivity roads, and other NHDP projects.
The report points out that 5,986 km of economic corridors have been completed against the sanctioned 8,737 km. In the same vein, inter-corridor roads have covered 2,108 km against the 2,889 km awarded, and feeder roads account for 540 km. National corridors have witnessed 1,394 km completed against the 1,777 km allocated. Expressway construction has accounted for 1,791 km completed against the total awarded length of 2,422 km. Also, 1,400 km of international connectivity and border roads have been completed, whereas the rest of the NHDP projects have 5,058 km of completed work out of an allocated 6,758 km.
The report by MoRTH has once again renewed its Vision 2047 that is to extend access to a high-speed corridor of 100-150 km and place India among the first 10 nations in the G20 group for road infrastructure.
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