Masterplan For Highway Development: Road Transport Ministry Plans To Build 41,000 Km National Highways By 2031-32

The Union Road Transport Ministry has proposed a programme to build and widen around 41,000 km of national highways, including 15,000 km of high speed (access-controlled) corridors, by 2031-32.

As per the proposal, the projects under first phase of the proposed master plan for highway development would be bid out by 2028-29 and the construction would be completed by 2031-32.

According to the Road Transport Ministry, the proposal would require an estimated investment of Rs 19.5 lakh crore.

The high speed corridors have already been identified to ensure that such stretches are accessible within 100-150 km from any part of India and also to decongest the NHs around cities and urban areas. As per the Ministry’s assessment, India would ultimately need around 50,000 km of high speed corridors for this.

As of now, only 3,900 km of the high speed corridors are operational in the country and by 2026-27, this would be around 11,000 km.

"Keeping in mind this huge gap, new high-speed corridors of 36,500 km have been identified that will address congestion. In the next 20 years, the focus will be more on building four and six lane highways,” the Ministry maintains.

The proposal estimates that around 57 per cent of the funding for the first phase of the development would come from the Budget and another 43 per cent from private investment.