The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has chalked out a Rs 3.10 lakh crore plan to build 22 greenfield expressways as part of a plan to decongest major cities.
Of the 7,500 km new roads, NHAI plans to build six expressways of 2,250 km, entailing an investment of Rs 1.45 lakh crore, while another 16 greenfield corridors with aggregate length of 5,250 km will require an investment of Rs 1.65 lakh crore.
These expressways will help mitigate issues like land acquisition, utility shifting and other clearances related to brown-field expansion.
The projects are expected to be ready by FY25. Of these, work on three expressways has already begun, Delhi-Mumbai expressway being the major one, also India’s longest expressway at 1,320 km.
Among the corridors NHAI proposes to build are–Ahmedabad-Dholera, Delhi-Amritsar-Katra, Chennai-Bengaluru, Kanpur-Lucknow, Bengaluru Ring Road, Amritsar-Bhatinda-Jamnagar, Hyderabad-Raipur, and Nagpur-Vijayawada.
The expressways will help improve alignment and provide connectivity to major towns, thereby reducing travel time.
The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has sought a budgetary support of around Rs 94,000 crore for FY21. In the budget for 2019-20, MoRTH was allocated a budgetary support of Rs 83,015 crore.
NHAI is also planning to raise around Rs 65,000 crore in FY21. NHAI’s borrowing target is Rs 10,000 crore less than what was approved in 2019.
