With the Indian car market expected to hit the 5 million per annum mark by 2020, the country is in dire need of improvement in infrastructure. India’s latest project, Bharatmala, aims to add over 83,000 kms of road over the next five years to improve the nation’s road-connectivity.
At the cost of almost Rs 7 lakh crores, the number of freight corridors will be increased from six to 50 to ease out cargo movement across the mainland. Along with the 26,000kms of dedicated corridors you will also get 8,000kms of inter-corridors and 7,500kms of feeder corridors. The inter and feeder corridors will ensure smooth entry and exit from the national corridors while also interconnecting them. This project is aimed at improving India’s Logistics Performance Index while reducing the transit time, improving driving efficiencies and decongesting the existing infrastructure.
The project will also try and identify bottlenecks in the existing infrastructure and work towards improving it. Around 2,000kms of coastal roads connecting ports and 2,000kms of border roads are also a part of the project aimed at improving international connectivity. While a large chunk of the necessary spends will come from the central purse, the government is also working on build-operate-transfer and public-private-partnership models to reduce the burden on the exchequer.
