Highways of Growth

A 15,500 km HIGHWAY-BUILDING PLAN FORMS THE CENTREPIECE OF THE INFRA PUSH IN THE BUDGET, BUT ITS SUCCESS HINGES ON PRIVATE INVESTMENT

- ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

THE UNION BUDGET HAS SOUGHT TO GIVE A major impetus to infrastructure on the back of “accelerated development of highways”, with the road transport & highways ministry being allocated Rs 91,823.2 crore, as against Rs 83,016 crore in the previous fiscal. The allocation is the biggest among all infrastructure verticals.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech that the 1,250 km Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, a critical component of the Bharatmala Pariyojana, will be completed by the end of 2023. She announced five other cross-country expressways as well. Most experts, though, believe this will be difficult to achieve without private investment, which could partly be determined by the pace of ongoing projects. Several projects in the Bharatmala Pariyojana are witnessing delays owing to cost overruns of up to 55 per cent.