The National Highways
Development Project is one
of the largest road development
programmes to be
undertaken by a single authority
in the world and involves widening,
upgrading and rehabilitation
of about 54,000 km, entailing an
estimated investment of more
than
3,00,000 crore ($60 billion).
The National Highways Authority
of India is mandated to implement
NHDP. Most of the projects
have been developed or are under
development on public-private
partnership basis through BOT
(Annuity) and BOT (Toll) mode.
Typically, in an annuity project,
the project IRR (internal rate of
return) is expected to be 12-14 per
cent and equity IRR would be 14-
16 per cent. For toll projects,
where the concessionaire
assumes the traffic risk, the project
IRR is expected to be around
14-16 per cent and equity IRR
around 18-20 per cent.
NHDP is being implemented
under several phases that
includes four laning of Golden
Quadrilateral (GQ) and North-
South and East-West (NS-EW)
corridors (NHDP I & II).
Phase-I: Phase-I mainly
involves widening (to four lanes)
and upgrading of 7,498 km of
national highways and has four
component packages:
- Highway network linking
the four metropolitan cities
i.e. Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai-
Kolkata, covering a length of
5,846 km, popularly known
as the Golden Quadrilateral
project.
- Highways along the North-
South and East-West corridors,
covering 981 km.
- Port connectivity projects covering
356 km; and
- Other highway projects covering
a length of 315 km.
Phase-II: This phase involves
widening and improvement of
the NS-EW corridors (not covered
under Phase-I) covering a
distance of 6,647 km, besides
providing connectivity to major
ports on the east and west coasts,
and some other projects. This
includes 6,161 km of NS-EW corridors
and 486 km of other highways.
Four laning of the GQ has
almost been completed.
Phase-III: NHDP-III involves
upgradation of 12,109 km
(mainly four laning) of high density
national highways, through
the BOT mode at a cost of
80,626 crore ($16.1 billion).
The project consists of stretches
of national highways carrying
high volume of traffic, connecting
state capitals with the
NHDP network under Phases I
& II and providing connectivity
to places of economic, commercial
and tourist importance.
Phase-IV: To provide balanced
and equitable distribution of the
improved and widened highways
network throughout the
country, NHDP-IV envisages
upgrading 20,000 km of such
highways into two-lane highways,
at an indicative cost of
27,800 crore ($5.6 billion). The
government has already
approved strengthening of 5,000
km to two-lane paved shoulders
on BOT (Toll/Annuity) under
NHDP-IVA at a cost of
6,950
crore ($1.4 billion).
Phase-V: Under NHDP-V, six
laning of the four-lane highways
comprising the GQ and
certain other high-density
stretches, are being implemented
on BOT basis at an
estimated cost of
41,210 crore
($8.2 billion). These corridors
have been four laned as part of
the GQ in Phase-I of NHDP. Of
the 6,500 km proposed under
NHDP-V, about 5,700 km
would be taken up in GQ and
the balance 800 km would be
selected on the basis of predefined
eligibility criteria.
Phase-VI: With the growing
importance of urban centres,
particularly those located within
a few hundred kilometres of
each other, expressways would
be both viable and beneficial.
The government has approved
1,000 km of expressways to be
developed on a BOT basis, at an
indicative cost of
16,680 crore
($3.3 billion). These expressways
are being constructed on
new alignments.
Phase-VII: The development
of ring roads, bypasses, grade
separators and service roads are
considered necessary for full
utilisation of highway capacity
as well as for enhanced safety
and efficiency. For this, a programme
for development of
such features at an indicative
cost of
16,680 crore ($3.3 billion)
has been approved. Apart
from the high-density corridors,
a substantial part of the national
highway network would also
require development during the
12th Plan period. These sections
are characterised by low density
of traffic. Some of these stretches
fall in backward and inaccessible
areas and others are of
strategic importance. The development
of these categories of
national highways would be carried
out primarily through budgetary
resources.
(Excerpted from the report
Guidelines for Investment in Road
Sector, March 2012, prepared by
Deloitte for the Ministry of Road
Transport and Highways)