15,600 km of expressways to roll out

The Centre has drawn up plans to unroll an ambitious network of expressways to boost connectivity across key states over the next few years. While the ministry of road, transport and highways (MoRTH) has envisaged constructing 15,600 km of national expressways network in three phases by 2022, the end of the 13th five-year plan. UP is also planning five major expressways in the state with two extending to parts of Uttarakhand. According to the recent draft final report prepared by the ministry, several ‘greenfield’ or new alignments could cover 500-700 km. The study was carried out to formulate a master plan for development of expressways and has prioritised the entire network into three phases ending in 2012, 2017 and 2022. Keeping in view a time period of three-and-a-half years for a detailed feasibility study, land acquisition and construction, the ministry has set itself a challenging target of 2,000-3,000 km of expressways a year on BOT basis. This is an immense ask, and some would even say an overstretch given UPA-1’s record. But with better land acquisition norms, more inclusive tendering and faster decisions on tendering, the report states that at the all-India level, the project’s cost could be anywhere upwards of Rs 250,000 crore. The expenditure is immense and even if some of it rolled out, expressways would receive a significant boost. The report has identified substantial number of expressway stretches in the western, eastern and northern regions out of the seven regions where traffic growth has been significant in the recent past and the growth is likely to continue. According to the study, majority projects covering 12,386 km could be developed under BOT while 5,275 km could be constructed on annuity.