Roadways in India – Road Industry, Network, Projects & FDI

The total road network in India is 6.37 mn km comprising all categories of roads – national & state highways and urban & rural roads which is the second largest in the world. National Highways (NH) account for 2% of the total road network and carry over 40% of total traffic.

There has been a consistent increase in the construction of National Highways, with 13,327 kms being constructed in 2020-21, from 4,410 km of NH construction in 2014-15.

India has a well-developed framework for Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) in the highway sector. Asian Development Bank ranked India at the first spot in PPP operational maturity and also designated India as a developed market for PPPs.

In the last 7 years, the length of NHs has gone up by more than 50% from 91,287 km, as on April 2014, to 1,40,152 km now. The pace of construction has increased more than 3 times, from 12 km per day in 2014-15 to 37 km per day in 2020-21.

The Government has set an ambitious target in Budget 2022-23 of expanding the National Highway network by 25,000 kms over the fiscal year. Ministry of Roads & Highways overall target to develop 2 lakh Kms of National Highway Network by 2025.

The BharatMala Pariyojana, launched in 2017, aims to build about 65,000 km of national and economic corridors, border and coastal roads, and expressways, to optimize the efficiency of already built highway infrastructure. It is envisaged that the programme will provide 4-lane connectivity to 550 districts, develop 50 economic corridors of about 26,000 km,  increase the vehicular speed by 20-25%, reduce the supply chain costs by 5-6%, and improve the NH network to carry 70-80% of total road traffic. The first phase of the programme will develop 34,800 km of highways, at an estimated outlay of INR 5,35,000 crore.

100% FDI in roads and highways is allowed under automatic route.

For further details, please refer FDI Policy