India is known by its highways. Roads and
national highways denotes an important route in a system of roads, railway
lines and water ways for the country. The increasing domestic supply necessitates
demands the presence of a good transport infrastructure.
India through road-ways carry ~65% of its freight,
which is growing rapidly.
During the fiscal FY18 the government has approved the
biggest highway construction plan so far in the country, to develop
approximately 83,677 km of roads at an investment of Rs 6.92 lakh crore by 2022
aimed at pushing economic activity.
·
An allocation of INR 64,900 crore to speed up the
creation and expansion of highways, in addition to an investment of INR 27,000
crore (along with the state governments) on rural roads is aimed at improving
first and last mile transport and providing seamless connectivity. The pace of
construction of rural roads has increased to 130 km per day from 73 km per day
in 2016–17
·
The government allocated INR 131,000 crore towards the
capital expenditure for the railways, of which INR 55,000 crore would be
contributed by the central government, while the rest is expected to come from
market borrowings, internal generation and PPP
Express industry in India, a fast-growing
industry segment. In India, it has come a long way from its origin in late
1990s to the modern form. Since then industry has invested in information
technology, set up good processes and proprietary systems capable for handling
large volumes. Current express distribution market is valued at Rs. 17500
billion, which is further broadly distributed of documents and non-documents
segments.
With the economic uptick there will be increasing
demand in auto, consumer products, durables and e-commerce market which will
require good road logistics and network connectivity. Heavy investment in
roadways, highways and new projects in process would give a swift
transportation facility. E-way bill coming in February of this year would
decrease the time requirement from one sorting centre to another.
The total outlay for transport infrastructure has
increased by about 10 per cent to INR 2.4 lakh crore in FY18/7, representing a
continuity in the advancing infrastructure investments in the sector. Ensuring
full utilisation of the proposed outlay and a selection of high quality
projects for investments can help maximise benefit realisation.
