Bharat Mala: PM Narendra Modi's planned Rs 14,000 crore road from Gujarat to Mizoram

NEW DELHI: Atal Bihari Vajpayee built the Golden Quadrilateral. Narendra Modi wants to build Bharat Mala.

Bharat Mala is the name given to a ambitious programme of the Modi government — a road built along India’s vast west-toeast land border, from Gujarat to Mizoram, at a cost of around Rs 14,000 crore, and linking that to a road network in coastal states, from Maharashtra to Bengal. This is a road network that will, as it were, garland the territory of India. Hence the name.

“Our idea is to plan for a structured programme for building roads along our borders, especially the northern borders. And yes, we are calling it Bharat Mala,” Union Roads Secretary Vijay Chhibber told ET. The plan, Chhibber said, is expected to take off later this year after all clearances are in place. Given the primacy Modi has put on this project, the ministry is aiming to complete a detailed project report in next few months.

The Bharat Mala project has started with a detailed all-India assessment of the existing network. Officials said the government will have to construct some 5,300 km of new roads at an estimated cost of about Rs 12,000-14,000 crore for covering India’s entire west-to-east land border.
The government hopes to finish the project in five years. The project will start from Gujarat and Rajasthan, move to Punjab and then cover the entire string of Himalayan states – Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand – and then portions of borders of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alongside Terai, and move to Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and right up to the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur and Mizoram.

The Bharat Mala plan has a strong strategic component. It’s India’s attempted answer to improve reach and connectivity in border areas, right across a large part of which lies China’s impressive road infrastructure.

Supplies to India’s troops as well as military transport currently happen through poor quality roads. Bharat Mala is designed to address that.

There’s a strong economic component, too. Officials said borders will open up and border trade will start, and therefore it’s India’s interest to massively upgrade its border roads infrastructure.

Also, the economic multiplier effect of better roads on many poorer border states is expected to be high. Studies universally show economic activity picking up after an upgrade in road connectivity. Much of the new road construction will happen in mountain states where connectivity and economic activity is low.

The roads department doesn’t see funding as a problem – it has the mandate to spend at least Rs 1 lakh crore a year. Land acquisition and environmental clearances are the main challenges, the department feels.

Bharat Mala, the roads secretary said, will eventually connect with another signature project, Sagar Mala, which aims to connect ports and coastal regions with the hinterland through both rail and road links, besides developing inland waterways.