Bharatmala highways project plagued by cost, time escalation

20 Jul 2022 CW Team

The Union government’s slow-moving Bharatmala Project - a plan to develop over 30,000 km of national highways - is seeing completion times and costs escalate, according to a new report from ICRA.

The report says the project is likely to be complete in FY28, a six-year delay from the original timeline. The cost of the project has already risen by 99% to Rs 10,630 billion and is poised to see another 15-20% increase.

First announced in July 2015, the project was originally estimated to cost the country Rs 5,350 billion to develop 24,800 km of national highways and another 10,000 km of highways pending under the erstwhile National Highway Development Programme by FY22. Calculations made in 2015 pegged the project cost at Rs 155.20 million crore per km.

ICRA's findings point to land acquisition as being a major problem area for the project. Funding is also a likely roadblock, with costs almost doubling since 2015. Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has hinted at that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) may raise additional debt.

The Bharatmala Project is being undertaken by NHAI, the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry, and the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation, with the bulk of the project under NHAI.

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