The Union government recently launched Bharatmala project.
What is Bharatmala?
It is an umbrella project under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
The Public Investment Board has cleared the proposal for Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I.
Under the plan the government intends to develop 83,677 km of highways and roads at an investment of around Rs 7 lakh crore over the next five years.
In the first phase, the plan is to construct 34,800 km of highways at a cost of Rs 5.35 lakh crore.
It focuses on the new initiatives like development of Border and International connectivity roads, Coastal & port connectivity roads, improving efficiency of National Corridors, Economic corridors and others.
What can be positive outcomes of the project?
It will subsume unfinished parts of National Highway Development Program (NHDP).
National Highways Development Project (NHDP) to potentially generate 10 million jobs and result in a 3 per cent bump-up in the gross domestic product.
In Bharatmala programme, the focus is on economic corridors (9,000 km) is expected to ensure that investments are targeted at economic returns.
The ambitious project also plans to create new industrial corridors and urban centres, which should enhance economic activity in the country.
Against the 300 districts that are linked to national highways at present, Bharatmala will connect 550 more to the national grid.
The government also expects that 70-80 per cent of freight traffic will move on national highways, up from 40 per cent now.
What are the challenges?
Earlier similar plans execution suffered due to problems of funding and delays in approval and execution.
But typically, governments in the past have struggled with several operational issues such as land acquisition and other approvals.
The big concern is funding, the plan depends more on government funding, and as much as 15 per cent of the total investment is expected from the private sector.
Given the patchy record of public-private partnership schemes in India, there is no clarity on private sector investments.
Big construction companies such as Larsen & Toubro, GMR and GVK have been missing from auctions for highway projects.
How the challenges can be addressed?
To speed up the process of approvals, the government has already empowered National Highways Authority of India to approve all engineering, procurement and construction projects.
To rope private sector in, the government need to draw a definitive road map for timely completion, fund mobilisation as well as streamline other bottlenecks in the form of land acquisition.
To achieve dramatic changes, the government will have to improve its execution skills manifold by working closely with state governments.
The plan should go a long way towards improving connectivity, not just to the coastal and border areas but to backward areas as well.
