On Tuesday, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of four National Highway (NH) projects at Sonipat, Karnal, and Ambala. All three cities come under Haryana state. The total cost of the projects will be Rs 3,835 crores. On the occasion, Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal was also present.
These four projects are:
Inauguration of 11 flyovers on the Delhi to Panipat 8-lane National Highway (NH44) worth Rs 890 crores.
Foundation stone laying ceremony of Karnal Greenfield 6 lane ring road worth Rs 1690 crores.
Inauguration and foundation stone laying ceremony of 2NH projects worth Rs 1255 crores.
National Highways are the country’s arteries. According to official data, in the last 9 years, an unprecedented 50,000 kilometres of National Highways have been added. In 2014-15, India had a total of 97,830 km of National Highways which has been expanded to 145,155 km by March 2023.
According to the official data, in 2014-15, from building 12.1 km per day of roads, the nation is seeing 28.6 km of roads being constructed every day in 2021-22.
In India, roads are an important mode of transport. As of 1 December 2021, the country has a network of over 6,215,797 kilometres of roads. In the world, this is the second-largest road network (after the United States). Interestingly, at 1.94 km of roads per square kilometre of land, the quantitative density of India’s road network is equal to that of Hong Kong and substantially higher than the United States (0.71 km).
Adjusted for the large population, India has approximately 5.13 kilometres of roads per 1,000 people. Reportedly, every year, about 85 per cent of passenger and 70 per cent of goods traffic is carried by roads.
The Government of India (GOI) has started many projects to strengthen infrastructure of the country and one such program is Bharatmala Pariyojana.
Bharatmala Pariyojana
Bharatmala Pariyojana, the country’s largest infrastructure program was envisioned (in 2017) to develop 34,800 km of National Highway corridors. These corridors will connect more than 580 districts in India.
Bharatmala Pariyojana focuses on the development of 24,800 km of dedicated expressways, access-controlled economic corridors, associated feeder routes, coastal and port connectivity, and border and international connectivity corridors. Additionally, 10,000 km of ongoing NHDP projects are envisioned as part of the overall program which will cover a length of 34,800 km.