Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
The eight-lane DME, whose construction began in 2018, would cut the distance between the national capital and the financial capital by 130 km and travel time from approximately 24 hours to 12 hours. Image Source: IANS
According to the data released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the construction of highways till December 2022 has been a mere 5,774 km against the target of 12,000 km in the current financial year.
On Sunday, February 12, 2023, the Sohna (Haryana)-Dausa (Rajasthan) segment of the New Delhi-Mumbai Expressway (DME) will be formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Part of the grand expressway in making, this stretch is expected to bring down the travel time between Delhi and Jaipur, which are distanced at about 280 km, to around two hours. The eight-lane DME, whose construction began in 2018, would cut the distance between the national capital (New Delhi) and the financial capital (Mumbai) by 130 km and travel time from approximately 24 hours to 12 hours.
Being built at a staggering cost of Rs. 98,000 crore, the 1,380 km long project will cover the states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. The construction of the expressway is also hoped to result in annual fuel savings of over 320 million liters and reduce CO2 emissions by 850 million kg. According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, this project is only the second in the world to include animal overpasses and the first in Asia. They will be 7 kilometres long to allow for unrestricted passage of wildlife. The project will also include two 4-kilometer-long (8-lane) tunnels for eco-sensitive areas. The construction of the expressway is a part of the first phase of the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' and is likely to be completed by March 2023.
Considering the inauguration of the Sohna-Dausa segment of the New Delhi- Mumbai Expressway by PM Modi, India Tracker takes a look at the construction of national highways in the country.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the construction of highways till December 2022 has been a mere 5,774 km against the target of 12,000 km in the current financial year. The ministry has constructed 5,774 km of national highways up to December in FY 2022-23 as compared to 5,835 km constructed up to December 2021-22.
One of the major reasons behind the slowdown in the highway construction is being attributed to country’s prolonged monsoon season. Officials from the ministry and other field experts said that the prolonged monsoon has created a lot of hurdles in the construction. Giridhar Aramane, secretary, ministry of road transport and highways while commenting on the slowdown in the construction activity said that “The construction of new highways has been slow in the first six-month period. The same trend has been seen in the past three years. If we relate the current numbers with same period last year, we have almost reached 90 percent levels. Construction generally picks up pace in the second half of the year and we are confident of constructing 12,000 km of highways this year."
Aramane’s comments bring hopes about achieving the set target. But let us have a look at the basic mathematics here. The ministry has been able to construct 5,774 km national highways till December 2022. Simplifying this, it means that not even half of the target has been met in first nine months of the FY2022-23 as the target of highway construction in the current financial year is 12,000 km. Now, in order to achieve the target, the ministry has to undertake the completion of remaining 6,226 km till March 2023. This means that more than half of the construction in current financial year is still pending. But according to experts, 50 km of new roads must be built every day in order to accomplish the desired goal. The government has never succeeded in doing this in the past.
The chart below compares the construction of National Highways from April to December in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
There is a slowdown in the construction of national highway in the current financial year as compared to the previous one. Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, had stated in the monsoon session of the Rajya Sabha that India's road infrastructure will be equal to that of the United States by 2024. Citing instances of how the expressways will cut down on travel time, he had said that the travel time between major cities of India will be cut to less than half. He reiterated his statement recently at the 95th annual convention of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI). He said that “We are making the world standard road infrastructure in the country and promising you that before the end of 2024, India’s road infrastructure will be equal to the standard of the USA.” But the data shows a different reality as the highway construction in India slows down.
