51,300-km of roads declared as National Highways

The Public Investment Board (PIB) has recommended a proposal for Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana for investment approval from Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, said Minster of State for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, Pon. Radhakrishnan in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on 20 July 2017.

The Bharatmala Pariyojana covers National Highways (NHs) network with a view to develop road connectivity to border areas, development of coastal roads including road connectivity for non-major ports, improvement in the efficiency of National Corridors, development of Economic Corridors, Inter Corridors and Feeder Routes along with integration with Sagarmala, etc.

Meanwhile, the Ministry has given “In-Principle” approval and declared about 51,300 km of state roads as new National Highways (NHs) subject to their Detailed Project Reports (DPRs).

The declaration of state roads as new National Highways is done from time to time depending upon the requirement of connectivity.

The criteria for this include roads running through length, breadth of the country, connecting adjacent countries, national capital with state capitals, mutually the state capitals, major ports, non-major ports, large industrial centers or tourist centers, roads meeting very important strategic requirement in hilly and isolated area, arterial roads which enable sizeable reduction in travel distance and achieve substantial economic growth thereby, roads which help opening up large tracts of backward area and hilly regions (other than strategically important ones), achieving a National Highways grid of 100 km, etc.

India has about about 1,15,435 km of NHs at present. fii-news.com