16 National Highway Projects in Manipur , Shri Nitin Gadkari inaugurates and lays foundation stone for 16 National Highway Projects in Manipur for Rs 4,148 crores - Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari today inaugurated and laid foundation stone for 16 National Highway Projects in Manipur with an investment of Rs 4,148 crores covering total length of 298 kms. The projects will provide all weather connectivity to Manipur with the rest of the country and the Neighbouring countries. They will boost agricultural, industrial and socio economic progress of the region. These will also facilitate health care and emergency service to the remotest of the areas and generate employment and self employment oppurtunities.
Inaugurating the projects in Imphal Shri Gadkari said projects worth Rs 5000 crores have also been sanctioned for the state and the Detailed Project Reports (DPR)will be completed within six months and the work will start in a year’s time. He said expansion of Highways in the state will be recommended under the Bharatmala Phase ll .He said Prime Minister is giving highest priority to the north east and road infrastructure will contribute in development of Manipur and make it socially and economically strong. The Minister said water ,power ,transport and communication are the four most important things for development of industry ,for generating employment and eradicating poverty. He said Manipur is a very beautiful state with immense potential for Tourism .
Shri Gadkari sought the cooperation of all the stakeholders for resolution of problems and completion of projects in a time bound manner. He said the details of all the projects will be put on website.
The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) is a project to upgrade, rehabilitate and widen major highways in India to a higher standard. The project was started in 1998 under the leadership of Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. National Highways account for only about 2% of the total length of roads, but carry about 40% of the total traffic across the length and breadth of the country. This project is managed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. The NHDP represents 49,260 km of roads and highways work and construction in order to boost economic development of the country. The government has planned to end the NHDP program in early 2018 and consume the ongoing projects under a larger Bharatmala project.
INDIAN ROAD INDUSTRY REPORT
India has the second-largest road network in the world, spanning a total of 5.89 million kilometres (kms). This road network transports 64.5% of all goods in the country and 90% of India’s total passenger traffic uses road network to commute. Road transportation has gradually increased over the years with improvement in connectivity between cities, towns and villages in the country.
In India, sale of automobiles and movement of freight by roads is growing at a rapid rate.
Market size
Highway construction in India increased at 17.00% CAGR between FY16-FY21. Despite pandemic and lockdown, India has constructed 13,298 km of highways in FY21.
In FY21, 13,298 kms of highway was constructed across India.
In October 2020, the foundation stone was established for nine National Highway projects—with a total length of ~262 kms—worth >Rs. 2752 crore (US$ 371.13 million) in Tripura.
The Government of India has allocated Rs. 111 lakh crore (US$ 1.4 trillion) under the National Infrastructure Pipeline for FY 2019-25. The roads sector is likely to account for 18% capital expenditure over FY 2019-25.
In October 2020, The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) is making progress towards integrating its road and highway portfolio. The NIIF has acquired Essel Devanahalli Tollway and Essel Dichpally Tollway through the NIIF master fund. These road infra-projects will be supported by Athaang Infrastructure, NIIF's proprietary road network, assisted by a team of established professionals with diverse domain expertise in the transport field.
Key Investments/Developments
The Union Minister of State for Road, Transport and Shipping has stated that the Government aims to boost corporate investment in roads and shipping sector, along with introducing business-friendly strategies, that will balance profitability with effective project execution. According to the data released by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Policy (DPIIT), construction development^ sector attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow worth US$ 25.93 billion in the between April 2000 and December 2020.
Government Initiatives
Some of the recent Government initiatives are as follows:
The government also aims to construct 23 new national highways by 2025.
The Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, is targeting to construct 40 kms per day in FY22.
In April 2021, the NHAI has decided to deploy Network Survey Vehicle (NSV) to enhance quality of the national highways. Carrying out road condition survey using NSV on the national highways was made mandatory for certifying completion of the project and every six months thereafter.
In March 2021, the Mizoram-Myanmar road project, which was launched under SARDP-NE, completed 92% work and is scheduled to be completed by June 2021.
Under the Union Budget 2021-22, the Government of India has allocated Rs. 108,230 crore (US$ 14.85 billion) to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
The NHAI awarded 1,330 km of highways in the first half of FY21, which was 1.6x of the total awards in FY20 and 3.5x of the FY19-levels. NHAI, the nodal authority for building highways across the country, has set a target of awarding 4,500km of projects in FY21.
In February 2021, The Minister for MSMEs and Road Transport & Highways Mr. Nitin Gadkari approved construction of the 158-kms ring road worth Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.37) in Telangana.
In January 2021, the Government of India and New Development Bank (NDB) signed two loan agreements for US$ 646 million for upgrading the state highway network and district road network in Andhra Pradesh.
In December 2020, the MoRTH proposed to develop additional 60,000 kms of national highways (in the next five years), of which 2,500 kms are expressways/access controlled highways, 9,000 kms are economic corridors, 2,000 kms are coastal and port connectivity highways and 2,000 kms are border road/strategic highways. The ministry also intends to improve connectivity for 100 tourist destinations and construct bypasses for 45 towns/cities.
In December 2020, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways inaugurated the three lane 1.5 km long Koilwar bridge over Sone river in Bihar.
In December 2020, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Mr. Nitin Gadkari laid foundation stones for 15 National Highways projects with a total length of 266 km, worth Rs. 4,127 crore (US$ 560.88 million) in Nagaland.
In December 2020, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Federal Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology of the Republic of Austria on technology cooperation in the road infrastructure sector.
In November 2020, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued the ‘Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines 2020’ to regulate shared mobility and reduce traffic congestion and pollution.
In November 2020, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Mr. Nitin Gadkari announced a large financial relief package and released Rs. 8,000 crore (US$ 1.08 billion) to meet the working capital requirements of contractors.