India 'infrantic', the faster roads ahead
ministry of road transport and highways plans to construct and expand approximately 41,000 km of NHs, including 15,000 km of high-speed, access-controlled corridors, by the fiscal 2031-32. Two critical aspects of the plan: one, decongesting highways in and around cities; two, building high-speed corridors (HSCs). India has 3,900 km of HSCs.
This may go up to 11,000 km by 2026-27. GoI will be spending ₹19.5 lakh crore on this much-welcome upgrade.
Other than making travel for all less time-consuming, increased speeds on NHs could bring down the logistics cost to 9-10% of GDP from 13-14%. In countries such as Singapore and the US, the logistics cost is 8% or lower.
This new plan also segues well with the planned rollout of 400 semi-high-speed, medium-distance Vande Bharat trains, 220 new airports, and doubling port capacity to 3,000 mtpa. Investments in EVs, solar, wind and hydrogen will pick up.
Overall, India is expected to spend $143 trillion on infrastructure between fiscals 2024 and 2030, more than twice the $67 trillion spent in the past seven financial years from 2017. Crisil expects India's GDP to grow at an average of 6.7% through FY2031, and rise in per-capita income from $2,500 to 4,500 by FY2031, creating a middle-income country.
Infrastructure development, with a sharp focus on integrating sustainability, will be the key driver of growth. Yet, infra push is not just about creating megastructures. Watch out for its ripple effects.
