In his book ‘A Vision of American Strength: How Transportation Infrastructure Built the United States’, James Pinkerton writes – “The history of civilization is the history of infrastructure.” That is a pretty telling assertion. If one looks at the progress America has made over the years, a key initiative was the New Deal that President Roosevelt, upon assuming office in 1933, enacted that would take the country out of the clutches of the Great Depression. The role of US Federal Government was fundamentally transformed by expanding its scope and size. Similar parallels can be found in the history of other developed economies too.
For the world’s largest democracy, its ‘New Deal’ moment has probably arrived now. India, with its labyrinth of rural and urban roads, ports, and airports, has had a steady development of its infrastructure since independence. Post-2014, with the new dispensation at the Center, the thrust that infrastructure received was monumental. Let us look at a few key numbers to understand this better.
- Over last 9 years, 53,000 Kms of National Highways were added.
- The speed of highway construction leapfrogged from 12.1 Km/day in 2014-15 to 37 Km/day in 2022-23.
- 3.28 lakh Kms of rural roads have been built since 2014, and 27 Greenfield expressways are being developed across the country.
- Length of metro rails have increased from 248 Kms in 2014 to 860 Kms in 2023.
- Till 2014, only 74 airports were operational in the country. By 2023, another 74 airports, heliports and water aerodromes have been added.
The list goes on.
Let us take a look at two of the major infrastructure components viz Roads and Airports, around how they fare presently in India.
Roads
India has the 2nd largest road network in the world, spanning 63.73 lakh Km of road network, which includes national highways, state highways, district roads, and rural roads. Road transport carries 87% of total India’s passenger traffic and more than 60% of its freight. National highways account for 2% of the total road network and account for 40% of total traffic. Naturally, there was an impetus needed to expand our NH network. That is where the Bharatmala Pariyojana, approved in October 2017, has played a major role.
34,800 Km of NH was envisaged as part of Bharatmala Pariyojana. It proposed a corridor-based NH development, to ensure infrastructure symmetry and consistent road user experience. 550 districts are being connected through NH linkages as part of this scheme. Some of the key components of this Pariyojana are as below:
- Development of economic corridor
- Inter-corridor and feeder routes development
- Border and international connectivity roads
- Coastal and port connectivity roads and expressways
- 35 locations for multimodal logistics parks
- 28 cities identified for Ring Roads
A world record was created by constructing 75 Kms of continuous single-lane bituminous concrete roads in record time of 105 hrs and 33 mins.
Not only this ambitious Pariyojana, road connectivity to rural areas and left extremism-affected areas have also been given a much-needed impetus. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana was approved in 2019. It focuses on consolidating 1,25,000 Km of existing routes that connect habitations to Grameen agricultural markets, as well as schools and hospitals. Since its inception till 13th July 2022, 86,039 Km of road length had been sanctioned and 41,440 Km completed under PMGSY-III.
Construction of roads in left-wing extremism-affected areas was also launched as a separate vertical under PMGSY. Since inception, till 13th July 2022, 12,081 Km of road length had been sanctioned and 6,179 Km completed under RCPLWEA (Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism (LWE) Affected Areas).
There has also been an eye for using modern technology in road infrastructure development. States have been urged to use smart technologies to the tune of at least 20 – 25% in infrastructure work.
Civil aviation
A quick set of statistics will set the stage to enumerate the tremendous growth that civil aviation has undergone in India over the past 9 years. The total number of domestic passengers in 2014 was 60 MN, which more than doubled to 143 MN in 2020 before COVID-19. International passengers have increased during the same timeframe from 43 MN to 64 MN. In terms of aircraft, the number has gone up from around 400 in 2014 to 723 in 2023, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last 9 years, 11 more greenfield airports have been operationalized.
Not just airports, the Government is planning to revamp the entire aviation ecosystem as well, including FTOs (Flying Training Organizations), helicopters, ground handling, MRO, and manufacturing. The ‘Make in India, but Make for the World’ impetus as envisioned by PM is seeing fruits here. Boeing, along with Tata and other companies, have set up multiple facilities in India, and exports goods worth over 1 BN USD, that are made in India. Airbus exports goods worth around USD 650 MN from India. One of the largest MRO majors Safran is putting in place a USD 150 MN facility in India for their LEAP engine.
Infrastructure soaring new height
There have been a few notable landmarks accomplished within Infrastructure. The Chenab Bridge is the world’s highest railway bridge that is nearing completion. The bridge, along with the stretch of route from Jammu to Baramulla, is expected to get operational soon enough. Atal Tunnel is the world’s longest highway tunnel above 10,000 ft. Zojila Tunnel is Asia’s longest road tunnel. Himank was the world’s first motorable road through glaciers in Ladakh. Bogibeel Bridge is Asia’s 2nd longest rail-road bridge, and it is India’s first bridge to have fully welded steel-concrete support beams that can withstand earthquakes of up to magnitude 7 on the Richter scale.
Harbinger to economic prosperity
For every rupee that is spent on Infrastructure, there results in a 2.5 – 3.5 rupees increase in GDP. Nitin Gadkari, India’s minister of road transport and highways is thus spot on when he says that the prosperity of India is coming from the roads. The government is trying to enhance the manufacturing sector’s contribution to 25% of GDP, and in that endeavour, faster and more reliable transit of raw materials and finished goods via improved road and rail assume significance.
About the New Deal for America, Roosevelt famously said, “I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.” Closer to home, our ‘call to arms’ bugle has seemingly been sounded off. And, an infrastructure revolution that has slowly yet surely swept India over the last 9 years, is leading that charge.
