Highway construction: Innovation is the name of the game

As carriers of around 85% of India’s passenger movement and nearly 60% of freight traffic, our road networks are essentially the country’s central nervous system. We possess the second largest road network in the world, with a highway density that equals that of the United States, and is four times that of China. However, the state of our roads is far from being compatible with the country’s basic mobility requirements, be it in terms of volumes, quality or safety. Our national highways (NHs) comprise only around 2% of the total road network but carry around 40% of the traffic. Hence, improving this component of our road system is vital.

The pace of construction of NHs has gained impressive momentum recently, growing by 70% over 2015-2018, compared to the previous four years. The road ministry has set a construction target of an additional 60,000 km over the next five years. This would entail a funding commitment of `4 trillion annually till 2024, which would have to be met through extra-budgetary resources, primarily private capital.