05 Feb

Road Infrastructure Getting Smarter

< General Studies Home Page 

• Introduction
• Types of Roads in India
• Key Reasons for improvement in road construction in the last 3 decades
• Some key challenges which continue and need to be worked upon

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Introduction

• India has the 2nd largest road network in the world with 63.71 lakh kms of roads. Road transport is the dominant transport sector in India, both in terms of traffic and in terms of contribution to National Economy (3.08% of GVA (out of total 4.6% by transport sector)).

Types of roads in India

• India’s road infrastructure is categorized into six categories:

i. National Highways: 1.32 lakh kms.

• • These are the primary roads of the country and connect large cities and big industrial areas.
  • Their development and maintenance are the responsibility of central government.
  • Further need of development of National Highways:
    • Out of the total roads, only 2.06% is national highway, but its carrying capacity is 40%.
    • Higher the density of National Highway -> Higher the inter-state trade (Export + Import) as percent of GSDP (ESI)
    • A positive relationship exists between density of NHs and the per capita income in Indian States.
    • Presently, more than 70% of NHs are either two lane or less. Thus, there is a lot of scope of improvement.

ii. State Highways: 1.79 lakh kms

• • These roads link all the important centre of industry, trade and commerce of the state and National Highways

iii. District Roads: 6.12 lakh kms

• • These roads connect different parts of the district, important industrial centres and market centres and usually lead to local railways stations

iv. Rural Roads: 45 lakh kms

• • These roads are found in villages and usually are of two types – Pucca (or metalled) and Kutcha (or non-metalled). They constitute 70% of roads in India.

v. Urban Roads: 5.41 lakh kms

vi. Project Roads: 3.43 lakhs kms

Rate of Growth of Road Development in India

• The CAGR of total road length since 1991 to 2019 has been 3.64%. This CAGR between 1951 and 1991 was 4.50% on a much lower base.
• The total road length in 1951 was 4 lakh kms; in 1991 it was 23 lakh kms and in 2019 it was 62 lakh kms.
• So, in last 28 years (1991-2019), about 40 lakh kms of road has been added in the country.

Key Reasons for improvement in road construction (both quality and quantity) in the last 3 decades:

1. Delinking Road Development and Direct Employment:

• Until the liberalization reforms (i.e., 1991), the road development was also connected with direct employment leading to labor intensive construction and also putting a cap on the quality of roads.
• After 1991, the mindset changed and the use of capital intensive high-tech road making equipment was brought into use.

2. Creation of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI):

• NHAI became operational in 1995, which increased the focus on and quality of NHs. Before this NH development and maintenance was the responsibility of the state with funding from the centre.

3. Creation of State-Level Road Development Corporations:

• After the formation of NHAI, many states started thinking of better organizational forms than the PWD for road development under its charge.
  • For e.g., Maharashtra was first state to set up the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Limited (MSRDSCL) in Aug 1996. It developed Pune-Mumbai expressway.

4. Bringing In PPP Partnership:

• Initially, the concession agreements were loaded in favor of government and thus attracted very few private players in limited low risk projects.
• New Contracting Models and Asset Monetization also increased PPP’s success.
  • BOT (Toll and Annuity)
  • HAM
  • Toll Operate Transfer (TOT) operational model.

5. Starting of NHDP

• Started in 1998, this was the biggest road development projects in India (till Bharatmala was launched). It had two major components: the Golden Quadrilateral and the North-Sound & East West Corridors.

6. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna launched by MoRD during the Vajpayee regime is the most successful rural road development project in the country. Its success can be attributed to three
reasons:

• Selection of villages for connectivity based on objective criteria.
• Overseeing from independent agencies, including world bank
• Keeping the project under MoRD rather than MoRTH

7. Viability Gap Funding (VGF): When PPPs were hardly forthcoming for GQ project, the government came up with the idea of mitigating risks by providing VGF with a cap of 40% of the project cost. This increased the interest of bidders and many projects after phase 1 were done through PPP projects.

8. Increased focus on Expressways: The first access-controlled expressways for fast and streamlined movement was opened between Mumbai and Pune in 2002. While the construction of expressway had a slow start, it has picked up in last 10 years. As of Aug 2023, India has about 5,000 km of operational express way, and other 9,000 kms under construction.

9. Creation of Focused Organizations:

• Indian Highway Management Company Limited (IHMCL) was set up to carry out electronic tolling.
• National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) was formed to develop roads in border states.
• National Highways Logistic Management Limited was set up in 2020 for developing Multi-Modal Logistic Parks (MMLPs) and the first/last mile port connectivity projects.

10. Improvement in Road Making Technology:

• As the NHDP rolled out, the import of road infrastructure was brought under Open General License, making it easy for procurement. Further, using the transfer of technology mechanism, domestic manufacturing was encouraged.

11. Electronic Toll Collection (ETC):

• It reduced the toll collection time and consequent waiting.
• But this technology needs to further evolve, like in developed countries, to the point where vehicles need not slow down for the electronic payments but can have it done while travelling at the maximum speed.

Some key challenges which continue and need to be worked upon:

• Safety: India roads record more than 1.5 lakh deaths every year making Indian roads the deadliest in the world.
• There is a need to improve engineering, promote awareness among drivers to avoid rash driving; ensuring buffer lanes for turns; and providing for sufficient roadside parking.
• Urban Roads (i.e., the city roads) suffer from a lot of congestion in almost all cities and hampers first/last mile connectivity.
• Lane Kms vs Road Kms:
  • As more multiple lane roads get constructed, it’s important to measure lane kms. This will not only help us measure length but also the capacity.
• Origin to Destination (OD) Data:
  • For future planning and development of road network, it is important to get OD data. This can also be used for ETC.
• Better Coordination with PPP players:
  • Significant time and energy are wasted in disputes between the PPP players and the authority. Projects get delayed leading to significant inconvenience.

Conclusion:

Given the traction that India has built on road infrastructure, we should hope that the challenges are addressed and the momentum enhanced for development.