Proposed National Highways Grid

The government plans to build a national highways grid comprising a network of 27 road corridors. The blueprint for the same has been made ready recently. The aim of the project is to bring various parts of the country together.

Why the grid is essential?

Though, India can boast of second largest road transport network in the world, the current road to rail ratio of 70:30 coupled with the slow growth rate of road development when compared with the growth of road freight and vehicle volume will be inadequate and inefficient for economic prosperity. In addition, reduction in both passenger and freight costs requires expansion of roadways.

What is the present length of roads in the country?

Currently, India’s total length of roads is about 33 lakh kilometers. Out of which, national highways constitutes 1,03,519 km & state highways about 1.32 lakh kilometres.

What will be the salient features of the proposed national highways grid?

• The proposed national highways grid is expected to connect 12 major ports, 26 state capitals and 45 cities (with more than a million populations).
• With an aim to allow smooth and interruption free access from one region to another, interlinking of highways North to South and East to West in the pattern of a grid is proposed. Grid formation is highly regarded as one of the best practices of highway planning.
• It wants to ensure that the highways are linked every 250km in conformity with the Bharatmala
• The total project will be of Rs 25,000 crores worth.

What is the significance of this proposal?

• Interlinking of national highways would be essential to the spread of economic prosperity. Roads form vital links connecting producers to the distant markets and to the other parts of the economy.
• They help in promoting economic specialization and interstate trade. As of now, the interstate trade is less than 15% of the GDP. The same figure for the US and China is 40% and 35% respectively. High transaction costs resulting from the physical infrastructure problems are the primary reasons for such a low level of interstate trade in our country.

What is the way forward?

The government should take steps for the speedy implementation of national highway grid. Implementation of both highway grid and GST will broaden the tax base and increase the movement of freight volumes.

The concerns of the sceptics may be ignored as the projects like Golden Quadrilateral and the North-South corridor in the past have also met with similar concerns.

What are the other problems plaguing the freight transport?

It is estimated that the speeds of trucks in India is one of the lowest with 60% of their time getting wasted in checkpoints and tollgates. A recent study conducted by the Transport Corporation of India and Indian Institute of Management Calcutta has estimated that $14.7 billion and $6.6 billion are annually incurred due to additional fuel consumption costs and transportation delays, respectively. These have adverse effects on the economy as pointed out by a survey conducted by McKinsey, which have estimated that around 13% of GDP is compromised by these logistical lacunae in India, which is way below than the 7-8% incurred in developed economies. In addition, infrastructure problems and red-tapism has adversely affected demand-supply and ultimately the freight transportation.