MoRTH targets ₹3.5 lakh-cr NHs under Bharatmala-II

Under Phase-II of the Bharatmala program, the Union transport ministry has planned to build about 8,500km, mostly greenfield corridors, involving ₹3.5 lakh crore investment. Some of the identified stretches include Pune-Bengaluru, Chennai-Trichy, Varanasi-Kolkata, Gorakhpur-Siliguri and Hyderabad-Bengaluru. The government is also going to roll out a proper program for ropeway projects, which has a huge potential to provide connectivity in the hill states like Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur and they have already forwarded nearly 50 proposals for ropeway projects. As far as Bharatmala-II is concerned, NHAI has been preparing the detailed project reports (DPRs) for such stretches so that they can start by inviting bids as soon as the scheme gets the go-ahead from the Union cabinet. This work can be taken up along with the ongoing projects under Bharatmala-I, which will miss the original deadline of 2022-23 considering ―major changes in the program compared to what was envisaged. The revised estimate for Bharatmala-I, which entails the development of 34,800 km of NHs, has almost doubled to ₹10.25 lakh crore. As per the original plan, 60% of the identified stretches were to be developed as at least four-lane corridors or more and the remaining 40% as two-and-half lane stretches. But now nearly 90% of the entire network under Bharatmala-I is being developed as four lanes or more. The second major change has been the change in plan to develop 2,500 km as expressways as compared to the original plan of 800 km. In addition, the agency is also developing 5,000 access-controlled highways under this program, which was not in the original plan, the ministry said in an official statement.