India has experienced rapid economic growth in recent years due to improvements in manufacturing and services. However, further growth requires better infrastructure like roads. The document discusses India's efforts to improve its road network through projects like the National Highways Development Project. Private sector participation is also growing and companies like Reliance Infrastructure are involved in building major road projects across different Indian states to further support the country's development.

2. “…IT IS NOT WEALTH THAT BUILT THE
ROADS BUT, ROADS THAT BUILT OUR
WEALTH”
-John F. Kennedy

3.  India’s rise in recent years is a most prominent
development in the world economy.
 India has re-emerged as one of the fastest growing
economies in the world.
 India’s growth, particularly in manufacturing and
services, has boosted the sentiments, both within
country and abroad.
 According to many commentators, India could
unleash its full potentials, provided it improves the
infrastructure facilities, which are at present not
sufficient to meet the growing demand of the
economy.

4.  Failing to improve the country’s infrastructure will
slow down India’s growth process. Therefore, Indian
government’s first priority is rising to the challenge of
maintaining and managing high growth through
investment in infrastructure sector, among others.
 India, while stepping up public investment in
infrastructure, has been actively engaged in involving
private sector to meet the growing demand.

5.  The most distinct part of India’s physical
infrastructure development in recent years is the
development of road network across the country; per
sq. km. of surface area in India is now endowed with
one km of roadways.
India has one of the largest road
networks in the
world, aggregating to 3.34
million km. The country’s road
network consists of
Expressways, National
Highways, State
Highways, Major District
Roads, Other District Roads and
Village Roads.

6.  The road network, as on December 2007, comprises
66,590km of National Highways, 128,000 km of State
Highways, 470,000 km of Major District Roads and
about 2.65 million km of other District and Rural
Roads.
 National Highways comprise only about 2% of the
total length of roads and carry about 40% of the total
traffic across the length and breadth of the country.
 Out of the total length of National Highways, 32
percent is single lane/intermediate lane, 56 percent is
2-lane standard and the balance of 12 percent is 4-lane
standard or more.

7.  The National Highways Development Project (NHDP), the
largest highway project ever undertaken by the country, is
being implemented by the National Highway Authority of
India (NHAI).
 NHDP Phase I & II envisage 4/6 laning of about 14,279 km
of National Highways, at a total estimated cost of Rs.650
million (at 2004 prices). These two phases comprise of
Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), North-South and East-West
Corridors, Port Connectivity and other projects.
 The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ-5,846 km) connects the
four major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
 The North-South and East-West Corridors (NS-EW-7,300
km) connect Srinagar in the North to Kanyakumari in the
South, including spur from Salem to Kochi and Silchar in
the East to Porbandar in the West.

9. Reliance Infrastructure
Better Roads For a Development India

10.  Therefore, with an objective of achieving the world
class road infrastructure in the country, the
Government has successfully ensured the participation
of private sector in road development. It is expected
that the share of private investments shall go up from
5% in 10th plan to 36% in 11th plan.

11.  At present, RInfra has eleven projects with a total
length of 968 kms, costing around Rs.11700 crores. Out
of them, NK Toll and DS Toll Road projects; both on
National highways (NH) 7 are completed and are
commercially in operation from Sep 09.
 NHAI is coming out with 10 Mega Highway Projects
and major 6 laning projects for an increased utilisation
of India’s road potential. Taking advantage of this
opportunity, RInfra is targeting to build road business
up to Rs 20000 crores by end of this financial year. This
showcases the initiatives that RInfra is adopting
proactively to build roads that are an amalgamation of
corridors to propel India’s growth and development.

12.  NK Toll Road Limited has constructed 43 kms long 4
lane National Highway (NH 7) road connecting
Namakkal and Karur in Tamil Nadu with a concession
period of 20 years. This toll road is in operation from
last week of Aug 2009 and is collecting average toll
revenue of Rs. 4.45lakhs/day. The major challenge
during the construction was to construct a major
bridge of 800 meter across river Cauvery. This bridge
construction included different types of foundations
to precast pre-stressed concrete super structures.

13.  DS Toll Road Limited has constructed 53 kms long 4
lane National Highway (NH 7) road connecting
Dindigul and Samynallore near Madurai in Tamil
Nadu with a concession period of 20 years. This toll
road is in operation from last week of Sep 2009 and is
collecting average revenue of Rs. 8.5 lakhs/day. The
major challenge during the construction was to
construct Railway Over Bridges over Railway line that
runs close to the NH all along the corridor. This
railway line crosses NH at 3 locations. Building
Railway Over Bridges at these locations in
coordination with the Railways was a major challenge.

14.  TK Toll Road Private Limited is constructing 81 kms
long 4 lane National Highway (NH67) road from Trichy to
Karur in the state of Tamil Nadu with a concession period
of 30 years. This is a challenging project to construct as
the corridor runs between a river and railway line. Both
traffic diversion and Construction activity to be carried
out within the limited available land.
 SU Toll Road Private Limited is constructing 136 kms
long 4 lane National Highway (NH68) road from Salem to
Ulenderpet in the state of Tamil Nadu with a concession
period of 25 years. This was the first project of more than
100 km to be awarded by NAHI on BOT Toll basis.

15.  TD Toll Road Private Limited is constructing 88
kms long 4 lane National Highway (NH45) road
connecting Trichy and Dindigul in the state of Tamil
Nadu with a concession period of 30 years.
 GF Toll Road Limited is constructing 66km of State /
MDR road in the state of Haryana. GF Toll has signed
the concession agreement with Haryana PWD for a
concession period of 17 years. Scope includes
construction and tolling of 4 lane corridor between
Gurgaon-Faridabad of 33.10 kms. This is one of the
busiest corridors in the state of Haryana. The project
also includes improvement/reconstruction and tolling
of Ballabgarh-Sohna road of 33.98 kms.