The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, under the stewardship of Nitin Gadkari has been setting new milestones with several highway projects being allocated and rolled out in a defined time frame.
Expediting Bharatmala Pariyojana, making highways free of toll plazas, containing accidents on red lights are some of the initiatives actively pursued by Road Transport Minister.
In last 6 years of NDA rule, the Ministry has taken several policy decisions.
In 2019-20, projects with about 8948 km length was awarded and about 10,237 km length of road construction was completed. The rate of development of roads has increased significantly from about 11.7 km during 2013-14 to about 28 km now.
Due to consistent efforts of the Ministry, length of the National Highways (NHs) has increased from 91,287 km in April, 2014 to about 1,36,155 km as on 20 December 2020.
Ministry sets up target of 60,000 km Highways by 2025
The Ministry proposes to develop additional 60,000 km of National Highways in the next five years, of which 2500 km are Expressways /Access Controlled Highways, 9000 km Economic Corridors, 2000 km for Coastal and Port Connectivity Highways and 2000 km Border Road/ Strategic Highways. The Ministry also intends to improve connectivity for 100 tourist destinations and construct Bypasses for 45 towns/cities during this period.
Expenditure of Ministry increased from Rs 33,745 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1,50,841 crore in 2019-20. Also private investment amounting to Rs 21,926 crore has been achieved during 2019-20. During the current year, an expenditure of Rs 79,415 crore has already been incurred till November 2020, including IEBR of NHAI. Also private investment of Rs 8,186 crore has been achieved up to November 2020.
Bharatmala Pariyojana and Multi-modal Logistics Parks (MMLPs)
The Bharatmala Pariyojana, which is approved by CCEA, includes the development of 35 Multi-modal Logistics Parks (MMLPs) at various locations across the country. These MMLPs are being developed on a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model and being implemented by NHAI and NHIDCL (in North-East India). The development of these MMLPs is one of the endeavours of the Pariyojana to eradicate Logistics related deficiencies in India, to draw the associated costs down and to strategically integrate highway projects and other connectivity initiatives like inland waterways, railways etc. in tandem with the freight distribution ecosystem.
A separate company under the NHAI named ‘National Highways Logistics Management Limited’ (NHLML) has been incorporated to carry the development of the MMLPs and works related to National Highway connectivity for ports.
A) Concept & Benefits of MMLPs
A Multi-Modal Logistics Park (MMLP) acts as an inter-modal freight-handling facility with mechanized material handling provisions which contains warehouses, specialized cold chain facilities, freight / container terminals and bulk / break-bulk cargo terminals.
Typically, MMLPs include inter-modal connectivity such as dedicated Railway line/Spur, access from prominent Highway(s) / Expressway(s) to allow movement of commercial vehicles and connectivity to an Airport or a Seaport (or Inland waterway Terminal).
As a value addition, the MMLPs shall also include services such as customs clearance, provisions for late stage processing activities such as sorting / grading, aggregation / disaggregation, cold storage etc. to provide flexibility to the users at a single location.
B) Status of MMLPs proposed under the Bharatmala Pariyojana
Since 2017, MoRTH in collaboration with NHAI and NHIDCL has progressed significantly in the implementation of the MMLP projects:
The MMLP at Jogighopa (Assam) is the first project for which the development work has been initiated. The foundation stone of the project was laid on 20.10.20 by Minister of RT&H and the same is being implemented by NHIDCL in Assam.
The MMLP at Chennai, Nagpur & Bangalore are at advanced stage of SPV formation and in case of MMLP Surat and Mumbai, a commitment for land from respective stakeholders is awaited. MMLP Sangrur (Punjab) has not been found viable for development of MMLP and a road -based Warehousing Park is found optimal for this location, which is situated along the Jammu-Katra Highway.
Further, feasibility assessment of seven more locations has been concluded and NHAI has been accorded with an approval for undertaking DPR exercises for MMLP Coimbatore & Hyderabad which has been found feasible in terms of demand analysis as per pre-feasibility report.
On a similar pattern, feasibility studies are to be carried out for the remaining 21 locations to assess the viability of development as per potential of Industrial demand, land availability etc. Additionally, 4 more locations viz. Anantpur (AP), Singrauli (MP), Sahebganj (Jharkhand) and Silchar (Assam) have been recommended by the respective State governments for development of MMLP under the Bharatmala Pariyojana. The feasibility assessment of these four additional locations is also being undertaken.
Development of dedicated National Highway Connectivity for Ports (as part of Bharatmala Pariyojana):
a) The MoRTH is committed to enhance the ports logistics ecosystem and is working hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Shipping to develop dedicated first mile national highway connectivity for certain identified ports & IWT terminals.
b) This effort is expected to eradicate multiple traffic related issues such as:
- Removal of congestion points in city locations where the Cargo vehicles directed towards ports meets city traffic by means of lane expansion / lane & grade separation
- Reduction in delays caused due to restrictions on commercial vehicles movement during certain hours of the day as per state/Local Urban regulations
- Reduction in road accidents through separation of Commercial and Passenger vehicle traffic
