Snapshot
Highway to growth
India with a total road network of 5.5 mn km comprises of national & state highways and urban & rural roads. National highways account for 2% of the total road network and carry over 40% of total traffic.
NHAI has accomplished construction of 3,979 km of national highways in the financial Year 2019-20. This is the highest ever highway construction achieved in a financial year.
The construction pace as noticed in last years has seen a steady growth with 3,380 Km construction in the FY 2018-19. Continuing the same trend with the development of 3,979 km of national highways during FY 2019-20. During April to September 2020, 3951 km of road was constructed and a target of 11,000 km has been set for this fiscal year.
India has a well-developed framework for Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) in the highway sector. Asian Development Bank ranked India at first spot in PPP operational maturity and also designated India as a developed market for PPPs.
The Government of India (GoI) is planning to expand the national highway network to over 200,000 km. The Government launched the Bharatmala Pariyojana, which aims to build 66,100 km of economic corridors, border and coastal roads, and expressways to boost the highway network. It is envisaged that the programme will provide 4-lane connectivity to 550 districts, increase the vehicular speed by 20-25% and reduce the supply chain costs by 5-6%. The first phase of the programme will bring in $82 bn investments by 2022 for the development of 34,800 km of highways.
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- Km
Avg. highway constructed per day
- Km
National highway construction
- %
Share of GDP on logistics & transportation
Projects awarded under PPP

$ 82 bn to be invested by 2022 under Bharatmala Pariyojana

Highest ever construction of 30 km per day of National Highways in 2018-19

National highways construction in India is targeted at 40 km a day in 2018-19

- Industry Scenario
- FOREIGN INVESTMENT
- INDUSTRY TRENDS
- POLICIES & SCHEMES
Industry Scenario
The GoI has given a massive push to infrastructure by allocating about $1.4 Tn for infrastructure to be invested until 2025.
The government has forecasted an investment of $350 bn towards road infrastructure in the North-East region of India during 2020-2025.
The market for roads and highways is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 36.16% during 2016-2025, on account of growing government initiatives to improve transportation infrastructure in the country. Almost 40% (824) of the 1,824 PPP projects awarded in India until December 2019 were related to roads.
The highways sector in India has been at the forefront of performance and innovation. The government has successfully rolled out over 60 projects worth over $10 bn based on the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM). HAM has balanced risk appropriately between private and public partners and boosted PPP activity in the sector.
Asset recycling, through the toll-operate-transfer (ToT) model has been taken up by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for 100 highways. The first two bundles of 9 highways each were monetized successfully for an investment of over $2 bn.
As one of the biggest reform, the NHAI has gone ‘Fully Digital’, with the launch of unique cloud based and Artificial Intelligence powered Big Data Analytics platform – Data Lake and Project Management Software. The entire project management work flow of NHAI is transformed from manual to online portal based, wherein the complete project execution operations including ‘workflow with time lines’ and ‘alert mechanism’ have been configured. All project documentation, contractual decisions and approvals are now being done through portal only.
GROWTH DRIVERS
Massive infrastructure push
$1.4 Tn to be invested for infrastructure from 2020-25
NH expansion
Length of national highways to reach 200,000 km
Growing demand
Production of all vehicle segments reached 26 mn
Policy support
Standardized process for bidding and tolling

