No further projects are being taken up under Bharatmala Pariyojana amid delays, cost overruns

The project is also marred by many delays and cost overruns, which analysts said could be one of the reasons for fresh projects not being taken up under the scheme. The length of 10,000 km under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) was also subsumed in this major highway infrastructure initiative.

“Total aggregate length of 26,425 km with a total capital cost of Rs 8,53,656 crore has been approved and awarded till date under Bharatmala Pariyojana (including 6,758 km length of residual NHDP). No further projects are now being taken up under Bharatmala Pariyojana,” according to the Ministry’s annual report 2024-25.

Initially, the cost of the project was Rs 5,35,000 crore and its completion deadline was up to September 2022. However, due to delay and escalation in the cost of land acquisition, the project cost has increased manifold. Now, the project is expected to be completed by 2027-28.

The data also shows that in the nine months of financial year 2024-25, a total of 1,790 km length of the project was completed till December 31, 2024. Overall, out of an awarded length of 26,425 km, 19,201 km has been completed, which is around 55 percent of the total approved length for Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-1. There are 10 components under the Pariyojana—economic corridors, inter corridor, feeder roads, national corridors, National Corridors Efficiency Improvements Program, border and international connectivity roads, coastal roads, port connectivity roads and balance road works under NHDP.

The data shows that 5,986 km of economic corridors have been completed out of the awarded length of 8,737 km, while inter corridor roads reached 2,108 km out of the awarded length of 2,889 km.

Similarly, feeder roads saw completion of 540 km and national corridors reached 1,394 km out of the awarded length of 1,777 km. A total of 1,791 km of expressways have been completed out of the awarded length of 2,422 km. Around 1,400 km of border roads and international connectivity roads were completed. Additionally, balance road works under NHDP show that 5,058 km of work has been completed out of an awarded length of 6,758 km.

In its annual report, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has reiterated its vision 2047, which aims to provide access to a high-speed corridor within 100-150 km and rank India among the top 10 countries in G20 nations.