India Plans 50,000km High-Speed Corridors by 2047

New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) The road transport and highways ministry has proposed to build 50,000 km of high speed (access-controlled) corridors by 2047, a senior official said on Friday.

Once completed, the average travel speed of trucks will increase from the current 45 kmph to 75-80 kmph on the National Highway network, Road Transport and Highways Secretary Anurag Jain said.

According to him, while the total length of high-speed corridors in 2014 was 353 km, which increased to 3,913 km in 2023.

"We have finalised a vision document for the infrastructure sector... In that document, we have proposed to increase the total length of high speed corridors to 50,000 km by 2047," he said.

A vision document is being prepared by NITI Aayog for India to become a developed economy of about USD 30 trillion by 2047, and it will be released by the Prime Minister by the end of January.

In 2023, the Aayog was entrusted with the task of consolidating the 10 sectoral thematic visions into a combined vision for Viksit Bharat @2047.

He said the awarding of projects would be as per Vision 2047 to improve implementation and minimise overlap.

According to Jain, out of 108 (3,700 km) port connectivity road projects, eight (294 km) are completed, 28 (1,808 km) are awarded and detailed project reports for 72 (1,595 km) projects are under progress.

He said under the Parvatmala Pariyojana, 60-km ropeway projects are planned for award by the end of this fiscal.

Ropeway at Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) of 3.85 km is under construction, Jain said, adding that bids for nine projects of 36 km length have been invited.

Jain said since the launch of Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model in 2018, state-owned NHAI has completed six rounds of the road asset monetisation through TOT mode and raised Rs 26,366 crore.