Roads to prosperity

The state of a country's economy can be measured by the state of its roads, so goes a popular opinion. In fact, higher the density of roads, particularly National Highways, higher the per capita income.
However, in India, National Highways constitute just 2.06 per cent of the total road network.

India's road density is higher than that of China, US and Japan - but the focus has been on intra-city rather than inter-state roads.

Moreover, less than two-third of India's roads are surfaced or metalled roads, hindering smooth movement of trade.

India's road network has been unable to keep pace with the growth in vehicular traffic. While the road network increased just 66 per cent from 2001 to 2016, number of vehicles increased more than four times. However, increase in traffic was driven by cars and two wheelers, while the share of trucks and goods carriers decreased.

An added problem is the delay in several projects. At last count, of the 482 road transport and highway projects, involving an expenditure of Rs 317,373.90 crore, 43 have exceeded their budget and 74 are long overdue - which has led to a more than 10-fold increase in non-performing assets (NPAs) in five years.