Status of Bharatmala Pariyojana

Status of Bharatmala Pariyojana

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – Policies and Interventions

In news

• A total of 322 projects in a length of 12,413 km have been awarded and 2921 km has been constructed under Bharatmala Pariyojana till August 2020.
• Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana: Implementation of 34,800 km of national highways in 5 years (from 2017 to 2022) has been approved (Rs. 5,35,000 crore).
• Phase-II: Around 48,000 km of road network across India by 2024.

Important value additions

Bharatmala Pariyojana

• It is an umbrella program for the highways sector.
• Initiated by: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
• Objectives: (1) To optimise the efficiency of freight and passenger movement across India by bridging critical infrastructure gaps through effective interventions; (2) To generate a large number of direct and indirect employment opportunities in the construction and infrastructure sector; (3) To connect 550 districts in the country through national highway linkages.
• Effective measures: Development of economic corridors, inter corridors and feeder routes, national corridor efficiency improvement, border and international connectivity roads, coastal and port connectivity roads and Greenfield expressways. 
• Features: (1) Improvement in the efficiency of existing corridors through the development of Multimodal Logistics Parks and elimination of chokepoint; (2) Improving connectivity in North East and increasing harmony with Inland Waterways; (3) Emphasis on the use of scientific and technological planning; (4) Satellite mapping of corridor; (5) Delegation of powers for successful completion of Phase I by 2022.

Do you know?

• Economic Corridors: These are integrated networks of infrastructure within a geographical area designed to stimulate economic development.
• Greenfield Projects: They lack constraints imposed by prior work on the site. Typically, it entails development on a completely vacant site and architects start completely from scratch.
• Brownfield Projects: They carry constraints related to the current state of the site and might be contaminated or have existing structures that architects have to tear down or modify in some way before the project can move forward.
• Multimodal Logistics Parks: These are a key policy initiative of the Government of India to improve the country’s logistics sector by lowering overall freight costs, reducing vehicular pollution and congestion, and cutting warehousing costs.
• Chokepoint: It is a single point through which all incoming and outgoing network traffic is funnelled and hence, leads to congestion and traffic.