New Delhi: The central government has decided to step back from the routine conversion of state highways into national highways, signalling a shift towards an economy-centric infrastructure strategy focused on freight efficiency and industrial connectivity.
The policy change was discussed at a recent high-level review of the highways sector, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the transport ministry was tasked with drawing up a new framework by the end of July. The proposed approach aims to reduce the need for reclassifying state highways as national highways and instead prioritise projects that directly support economic activity.
Over the past 11 years, around 55,000 km of state highways were upgraded to national highways, expanding the NH network from about 91,300 km in 2014 to nearly 1.46 lakh km today. While this expansion remains a key achievement, the government is now moving away from network expansion towards improving quality, capacity and efficiency.
Under the revised strategy, greater emphasis will be placed on developing greenfield expressways and dedicated economic corridors to speed up freight movement and strengthen links between industrial clusters, logistics parks, ports and emerging growth centres. Officials said the Centre will focus on setting quality standards and offering technical support, while encouraging states to improve internal connectivity, including better links to smaller ports.
With India’s road network now spanning more than 6.3 million km, policymakers believe that upgrading and widening existing corridors, rather than expanding highway classifications, will deliver stronger economic returns and support the growth of industrial zones, warehousing hubs and future cities.
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