China looks to add 1 million km of highways

China has 3.457 million kilometres of highway, about 36 kilometres for every 100 square kilometers of area. At the end of this year, the country will have an estimated 53,000 kilometers of expressways. China spent 623.1 billion Yuan (21.8 billion US dollars) in highway construction in 2006 and is expected to spend 660 billion Yuan this year. However, Feng said nearly half the highways, or more than 1.6 million kilometres of road, were of low level and needed upgrading. Passenger and freight transport via highways at that time are expected to be 149 per cent and 40 per cent more respectively than in 2006, he said.

China is second only to America in terms of its highway network and the pace at which they are stitching up the country with asphalt and cement; it will be no surprise if they overtake the US as well. The United States has 46,000 miles of interstate. By 2020, China is likely to overtake the United States. The United States built 41,000 miles of new highway from 1957 to 1969; China plans 30,262 miles this decade. The highway success story China is laying out km after km is already being likened to USA’s post World War II infrastructure upgradation exercise that pushed up the country’s GDP in a big way. China started large-scale countryside highway upgrades in 2003. In 2006, the country built and upgraded a total of 320,000 km of countryside highways, with national rural highway mileage reaching 3.026 million km.

India on the other hand, is trying hard to upgrade its 66,000 kms of highways and has no canvas bigger than one that plans a 80,000 km long NH network by 2021, as per its 2021 Vision plan. As far as expressways are concerned, the National Highways Authority of India has just managed to start with 400 odd kms of the Mumbai-Vadodara expressway while the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways plans another 15,000 kms of expressways under a special clause in the 11th Five year plan.

“The problem is that there is no proper study in India till date on the need for highways. We go ahead and 4/6 lane highways without any perspective or overarching system in place. Even the Roads Vision 2020 is hardly taken seriously. However, infrastructure is key to development and that realisation is there but we are working far too slowly, while China is sprinting ahead, “ said a senior official from the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways.