The government's National Highway Development Program will now focus on building more greenfield highways rather than expanding the existing network, signalling a significant shift in focus.

According to the media, the next phase of Bharatmala-ll, which will see nearly 8,500 km of national highways (NHs) built for Rs 3.5 lakh, will primarily focus on greenfield corridors. Pune-Bengaluru, Chennai-Trichy, Varanasi-Kolkata, Gorakhpur-Siliguri, and Hyderabad-Bengaluru are just a few of the stretches that have been identified.

The government is expected to launch a comprehensive programme for ropeway projects, which have enormous potential to improve connectivity in the hill states.

Nearly 50 proposals for ropeway projects have been submitted by Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Manipur.

In the case of Bharatmala-ll, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been preparing detailed project reports (DPRs) for these stretches to begin inviting bids as soon as the scheme is approved by the Union cabinet. They added that this work can be done alongside ongoing Bharatmala-l projects, which will miss their original deadline of 2022-23 due to major changes in the programme compared to what was originally planned. The revised estimate for Bharatmala-one, which includes the construction of 34,800 km of highway, has nearly doubled to Rs 10.25 lakh crore.

Officials said that under the original plan, 60% of the identified stretches would be developed as four-lane or more corridors, while the remaining 40% would be developed as two-and-a-half lane stretches. However, nearly 90% of the Bharatmala-l network is now being developed as four lanes or more.

The second major change was the decision to build 2,500 km of expressways instead of the original 800 km.

The overall increase in the road transport ministry informed Parliament earlier this month that the NHAI had bid out works for 19,363 km under Bharatmala-one until the end of January, with 7,000 km of the identified stretches completed.

Officials believe the remaining projects will be bid out by 2023-24, and all work will be completed by 2026-27.

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