India 'infrantic', the faster roads ahead

The time it takes to travel - people or goods - tells its own story. The average travel speed on highways in the US is over 100 kmph. In China, it is 90 kmph. In India, it is a paltry 47 kmph. But plans are afoot to push this figure up to 85 kmph on the national highway (NH) network. The ministry of road transport and highways plans to construct and expand approximately 41,000 km of NHs, including 15,000 km of high-speed, access-controlled corridors, by the fiscal 2031-32. Two critical aspects of the plan: one, decongesting highways in and around cities; two, building high-speed corridors (HSCs). India has 3,900 km of HSCs. This may go up to 11,000 km by 2026-27. GoI will be spending ₹19.5 lakh crore on this much-welcome upgrade.

Other than making travel for all less time-consuming, increased speeds on NHs could bring down the logistics cost to 9-10% of GDP from 13-14%. In countries such as Singapore and the US, the logistics cost is 8% or lower. This new plan also segues well with the planned rollout of 400 semi-high-speed, medium-distance Vande Bharat trains, 220 new airports, and doubling port capacity to 3,000 mtpa. Investments in EVs, solar, wind and hydrogen will pick up.

Overall, India is expected to spend $143 trillion on infrastructure between fiscals 2024 and 2030, more than twice the $67 trillion spent in the past seven financial years from 2017. Crisil expects India's GDP to grow at an average of 6.7% through FY2031, and rise in per-capita income from $2,500 to 4,500 by FY2031, creating a middle-income country. Infrastructure development, with a sharp focus on integrating sustainability, will be the key driver of growth. Yet, infra push is not just about creating megastructures. Watch out for its ripple effects.