Rs 7 lakh crore to be spent on highways in 5 years

NEW DELHI: In the next five years, approximately Rs 7 lakh crore will be spent in building and expanding highways and constructing expressways across the country . While barely 15 per cent of this investment will come from the private sector, the remaining 85 per cent will come from fuel cess and toll, monetisation of completed highway stretches and NHAI raising funds from the market.

Road construction is considered a major employment generator. Sources said around 40,000 km of highways will be expanded till 2022, which includes about 24,800 km covered under Bharatmala programme. According to government estimates, construction of 10,000 km of highways annually has the potential of generating four crore mandays and this can be a weapon to blunt the opposition's allegation that the government has failed to create employment opportunities.

TOI has learnt that the interministerial panel for approving government investment known as Public Investment Board (PIB) has approved the Bharatmala programme and the entire financing plan for highway development for five years is set to be cleared. It is also learnt that the NHAI Board, which will have representatives from ministries and Niti Aayog, will get the authority to appraise and approve projects up to Rs 2,000 crore. “This will ensure faster rolling out of projects. Works involving more than Rs 2,000 crore will be taken to the Cabinet for approval,“ a government source said.


Officials admitted that private investment was likely to be much less than the desired level of at least 30 per cent and hence government has to invest in a big way to push infrastructure growth.With the government making it clear that user charge or toll will be collected on viable stretches, NHAI will recover the investment. It can even auction completed highways projects to private players to get money upfront for fresh projects. For construction and widening of identified projects, the government aims to generate Rs 34,000 crore by monetising some of the completed stretches.

The prime minister's office has asked the highways ministry to accelerate monetisation of completed projects.