Centre may adopt new way to measure highways

livemint.com:

New Delhi: The government plans to shift to a new method of calculating the length of highways to “better capture" the actual work on this key infrastructure, two persons aware of the plan said. The traditional linear method of calculating the length of highway, used now, will be junked in favour of measuring lane-kilometres. This would mean that a four-lane highway of 1 km each will be considered a four-km road.

At present, it would be considered a one-km-stretch – irrespective of the number of the lanes. The switch – favoured by the Niti Aayog – would integrate Indian systems with internationally adopted and methods and allow the government to present a realistic picture of actual highway construction. With plans to build almost 50,000 km of access- controlled highways under the government's vision 2047 plan, the new method of would bring out the real picture of development of world-class roads with a minimum of four lanes going up to eight.

“We planned this switch earlier in 2018 but a political backlash to the proposal prevented from this shift. Now, with country looking to only construct wider and faster expressways, lane-kilometre will bring out real picture of complexities in new highway construction. The government may consider adoption of lane-km soon after the Vision 2047 plan of the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) gets cabinet approval," said one of the two persons quoted above.

Queries sent to MoRTH remained unanswered at press time. “The switch is a step in the right direction. It will give a complete picture of the motorable length of highways available for users.