Indian Highways & Roads need a retrofitting ?

                     

             Though India has an extensive road network of 3.3 million kilometres & is the second largest in the world but the question is - Is it matching the demand ?

As per the Global Competitiveness Report 2008-09, inadequate infrastructure is the biggest

Impediment  in India’s economic growth.The report ranks the country at a dismal 87th position as far

as the quality of roads is concerned, way below neighbours .

The index scores 133 economies from 0 to 7, with 7 being the best possible score. For the quality of roads index, survey respondents were asked "How would you assess roads in your country? (1 = extremely underdeveloped; 7 = extensive and efficient by international standards)"

 The percentage growth of road traffic from the year 1991 to 1995 has been about 42%, whereas the percentage growth of road length has been only 8.7%. This has also led to severe congestion on the roads. Indian roads carry about 61% of the freight and 85% of the passenger traffic. All the highways and expressways together constitute about 66,590 kilometers (only 2% of all roads), whereas they carry 40% of the road traffic.

Indian Road Network
Class	Length (km)
Access Controlled Expressways	200 km
4-6 lane Divided Highways (with service rd in crowded areas)	10,000 km
National Highways	66,590 km
State Highways	131,899 km
Major district roads	467,763 km
Rural & other roads	2,650,000 km
Total (approx)	3,300,000 km

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_road_network dated 12/04/2011  & http://www.iimcal.ac.in/community/finclub/dhan/dhan7/FINANCING%20INFRASTRUCTURE%20PROJECTS.pdf

Given the growing population, income levels and rapid urbanization, the need to develop the road network of the country to match heightened economic activity is of vital importance . In the last fiscal year  government decided to spend about Rs 1,20,000 crore per annum on building new highways and very recently fixed a staggering investment target of $60 billion to build 35,000km of roads in the next five years .This means that they want to build 7000 km road annually (20 km per day ) .most analyst think that it is over ambitious & I think that they are right because the  first five years of the UPA rule (from 2004) had seen construction at the pace of four km a day .

The graph below the difference between awarded and completed in the last 10 years

To bridge the gap we have to improve not just the pace of contracting but also push the pace of implementations. Govt must make sure that there is healthy private sector interest for upcoming projects by ensuring that projects remain attractive through various means available at its end like grant for projects, increase in concession period etc.

Moreover World Bank study has assessed that every rupee invested in the highways sector yields 7x returns in economic value. With this kind of multiplier effect, it is high time for India to increase its investment in improving its road network, both in terms of length and quality.