Bharatmala project to reduce logistics cost to 6% from 18%: Gadkari

NEW DELHI: Roads built under India’s ambitious Bharatmala programme will increase vehicle travelling speed by around 20-25%, thereby helping reduce logistics costs, transport minister Nitin Gadkari said at a press conference here.

This in turn would help reduce India’s supply chain cost to 6% from the present levels of 18%, said Gadkari, who heads the ministry for road transport, highways and shipping, and water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation.

India has been grappling with high logistics costs of 16-18%, which make its exports uncompetitive vis-à-vis China, which has lower logistics costs of 8-10%.

The Union cabinet on Tuesday approved an outlay of ₹6.92 lakh crore for building an 83,677km road network over the next five years. The road construction push includes the Bharatmala Pariyojana with a ₹5.35 lakh crore investment to construct 34,800km of roads. In addition, ₹1.57 lakh crore will be spent on the con- struction of 48,877km of roads by the state-run National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the ministry of road transport and highways.

“Bharatmala will bring down logistics cost, impacting exports and investment,” Gadkari said.

The Bharatmala scheme will create 100 million man-days of jobs during the construction phase and 22 million permanent jobs due to the increased economic activity triggered by it, he added. The government expects the road construction programme including Bharatmala to generate 142 million man-days of jobs.

Gadkari’s statement comes amid concerns over falling employment opportunities and job creation which have been impacted by policies like the goods and services tax.

Enumerating the benefits of the Bharatmala scheme, Gadkari said the number of road accident deaths will reduce by half.

The planned road construction will result in 80% of India’s vehicular traffic being carried by the national highway network, he added.