Bharatmala Programme

Bharatmala is an umbrella programme (launched by Ministry of Roads and Highways in 2015) for the highways sector that focuses on optimizing efficiency of freight and passenger movement across the country by bridging critical infrastructure gaps through effective interventions like:

• Development of Economic Corridors
• Inter Corridors and Feeder Routes
• National Corridor Efficiency Improvement
• Border and International connectivity roads
• Coastal and Port connectivity roads and Green-field expressways
• Government of India targets building 4000 km Greenfield roads and 3000 km expressways under the Bharatmala 2.0 Programme. Some of the identified expressways include Varanasi-Ranchi-Kolkata, Indore-Mumbai, Bengaluru-Pune and Chennai-Trichy.
• Bharatmala will significantly boost highway infrastructure – like it will raise 6 national corridors to 50, also will raise 40 per cent freight to 80 per cent freight on National Highways and will raise 300 districts to 550 districts connected by minimum 4-lane highways.

Issues with the Programme

• Low funding and delays in approval and execution
• Several operational issues such as land acquisition and other approvals.
• Poor record of public-private partnership schemes in India

Ways to Improve

• Speed up the process of approvals,
• Definite roadmap of project completion and fund mobilization,
• Clear demarcation of Public – Private partnership, and boost confidence of private partners and remove bottlenecks.