Bharatmala Pariyojana Not Paused, Master Plan of National Highways to Boost Logistics Ready: Govt in Lok Sabha – News18

The ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) on Thursday informed the Lok Sabha that it has not suspended its flagship scheme Bharatmala Pariyojana, adding that a cumulative length of 26,425 km of highways has been awarded under it and 18,180 km has been completed.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari, while responding to Coimbatore MP K Subbarayan and Nagapattinam MP Selvaraj V, said that MoRTH has prepared the Master Plan of National Highways to improve the logistics with the provision of expressway and high-speed corridors.

The two MPs had asked Gadkari if the project awarded under Bharatmala-1 and Bharatmala-2 had been suspended and replaced by a new scheme Vision 2047 to which the minister replied, “No”.

“Under Bharatmala Pariyojana projects with cumulative length of 26,425 km have been awarded and 18,180 km has been completed. Balance length is under implementation at various stages,” the minister said.

Gadkari added that going forward, the Master Plan of National Highways to improve the logistics with the provision of expressway/high-speed corridors and other roads has been prepared with the PM GatiShakti Framework using a transportation model with analysis of data of e-way bills (GST), toll and traffic survey. Under this, the ministry will focus on access-controlled roads.

In a separate reply, the ministry informed the House that the total length of national highways in India is 1.46 lakh km. A total of 48,422 km is more than four-laned while 84,705 km is two-laned. Another 13,000 km is less than two-lane, the minister added. Across states, there are 969 national highways, MoRTH said.

“Highway lighting facilities have been provided in about 25,400 km length of NHs in the country, including 105 km length in the state of Assam,” the ministry added.