For the development of National Highways (NHs) in the country, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has estimated a fund requirement of about Rs 6.92 lakh crore during the next five years. This requirement will be met from the Gross Budgetary Support of the Ministry, the Central Road Fund, Toll remittance, Monetization of National Highways through Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model, external borrowings by National Highway Authority of India and private sector investment.
Minister of State for Road, Transport and Highways, Mansukh Lal Mandavia has said that the estimated fund requirement for development of NHs/roads under various schemes and proposed phase 1 of Bharatmala Pariyojna is about Rs 6,92,324 crore up to financial year 2021-22. The estimated share of private sector investment and expected monetisation through TOT route during this period are about Rs 1,06,000 crore and about Rs 34,000 crore respectively, total of these form about 20.22 percent of total estimated fund requirement of Rs 6,92,324 crore.
The Ministry has identified 208 level crossings on National Highways for construction of Road Over Bridges (ROBs) under Setu Bharatam Scheme and feasibility study of 87 ROB projects has been completed so far. The government has envisaged to increase the existing National Highway network of 1.15 lakh km in the country to 2 lakh km. Besides, the government encourages the use of plastic waste in construction of National Highways specially within 50 km periphery of the urban areas having population of five lakh or more. However, at present, no National Highway has been constructed using plastic waste.
