Bharatmala Pariyojana

Geography glossary

Topic: Transport and Communication in India · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"

Meaning

Bharatmala Pariyojana is the central highway scheme of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). It replaced NHDP in 2017. It plans roads around freight corridors, meaning the routes that goods actually travel on, instead of widening one road at a time.

It matters because it links factories, mines, ports, border areas and big markets in one network. The aim is to cut India's high logistics cost, which is the cost of moving goods. Its Phase I is the largest highway programme approved so far: 34,800 km with an outlay of ₹5,35,000 crore [4].

Explanation

From NHDP to Bharatmala: how it came about

  • NHDP (National Highways Development Project)
  • It began in 1998-99, and NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) carried it out.
  • It widened the busiest highways to 4 or 6 lanes, in phases (stages of work done one after another).
  • Phase I was the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), about 5,846 km long, linking Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

  • Phase II was the North-South and East-West (NS-EW) corridors.

  • The gap NHDP left

  • It worked road by road. Big trunk routes were built, but the short links to factories, ports and towns were often missing.

  • This missing "last mile" means the final short link that takes goods from the highway to where they are made or used.

  • The change in 2017

  • NHDP was subsumed into Bharatmala, which means it was merged into it and stopped being a separate scheme.
  • About 10,000 km of NHDP work was still unfinished (residual NHDP). This work was added to Bharatmala Phase I [4].

The core idea: economic corridors

  • Economic corridor: a highway that links places where goods are made to places where they are used. These include industrial clusters, mines, ports and big markets.
  • Overall vision: about 26,000 km of economic corridors.

  • Together with the GQ and the NS-EW corridors, they are meant to carry most of India's road freight.

  • Cause → process → result

  • Cause: goods move slowly and at high cost because roads have choke points and missing links.
  • Process: the scheme maps freight flows, then builds corridors, feeder roads, bypasses and port and border links.
  • Result: faster and cheaper movement of goods, and better links to markets for remote regions.

Phase I: approval and parts

  • Approved by: the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in October 2017 [4].
  • Size: 24,800 km of new Bharatmala roads plus 10,000 km of residual NHDP, giving 34,800 km in total [4].
  • Outlay: ₹5,35,000 crore [4].
Component What it means Length
Economic corridors Main freight routes between economic centres ~9,000 km [4]
Inter-corridor and feeder roads Short roads that join corridors to each other, or join towns and factories to a corridor ~6,000 km [4]
National corridor efficiency improvement Removing choke points on the GQ and NS-EW with ring roads (roads that circle a city), bypasses (roads that go around a town) and elevated corridors (roads on pillars above crowded areas) ~5,000 km [4]
Border and international connectivity roads Roads to border areas and to neighbouring countries ~2,000 km [4]
Coastal and port connectivity roads Roads joining ports and coastal belts to the hinterland (the inland area a port serves) ~2,000 km [4]
Expressways Greenfield expressways: new roads with limited entry and exit points, built on fresh land instead of by widening an old road ~800 km [4]

Progress so far

Date Awarded Built
December 2023 ~26,418 km (~76% of 34,800 km) ~15,549 km [5]
31.10.2024 26,425 km 18,714 km [2]
28.02.2025 26,425 km 19,826 km [3]
  • The length awarded has hardly changed since late 2024. Building has been slow to catch up with what was awarded.

Where it occurs

  • Run by: the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Government of India. It is a central scheme.
  • Year: 2017. The CCEA approved Phase I in October 2017 [4].
  • Where it works: across India.
  • On the GQ (Delhi–Mumbai–Chennai–Kolkata), through ring roads, bypasses and elevated corridors at choke points.
  • On the NS corridor (Srinagar → Kanniyakumari) and the EW corridor (Silchar, Assam → Porbandar, Gujarat).
  • In border areas, with roads to neighbouring countries.

  • Along the coasts, joining ports to their hinterland.

  • State examples (length built by February 2025): Andhra Pradesh 1,070 km, Bihar 672 km, Assam 381 km, Delhi 183 km [3].

Don't confuse with

  • NHDP: NHDP (1998-99, carried out by NHAI) widened single highways such as the GQ and NS-EW. Bharatmala (2017, MoRTH) plans by freight flow and subsumed NHDP's leftover 10,000 km.
  • Golden Quadrilateral: the GQ was NHDP Phase I, launched in 1999 and completed in 2012. It is not a Bharatmala project. Bharatmala only removes choke points on it.
  • Sagarmala: Sagarmala is port-led development. Bharatmala is a highway scheme. They link up through Bharatmala's coastal and port connectivity roads.
  • PM Gati Shakti: Gati Shakti (2021) is a plan that joins road, rail, sea and other transport modes together. It is not a road-building scheme like Bharatmala.

Prelims Hooks

  • Bharatmala Phase I was approved by the CCEA in October 2017: 24,800 km new + 10,000 km residual NHDP = 34,800 km, with an outlay of ₹5.35 lakh crore [4].
  • Trap: about 26,000 km is the overall vision for economic corridors, not the length of Phase I. Phase I is 34,800 km.
  • Largest Phase I component: economic corridors (~9,000 km). Smallest: expressways (~800 km) [4].
  • Border and international connectivity roads (~2,000 km) and coastal and port connectivity roads (~2,000 km) are the same length [4].
  • NHDP was carried out by NHAI and was subsumed into Bharatmala in 2017. Bharatmala is a MoRTH scheme.
  • Built by 28.02.2025: 19,826 km, out of 26,425 km awarded [3].

Mains Points

  • From roads to corridors (GS-III, infrastructure):
  • NHDP widened single highways. Bharatmala plans by freight flow.
  • It adds feeder roads and port and border links, which supply the "last mile" that the GQ and NS-EW lacked.

  • The aim is to lower India's high logistics cost and make goods more competitive.

  • Regional development (GS-I):

  • Places where corridors cross, such as Jhansi, Kanpur, Bengaluru and Delhi, grow into nodes (meeting points of routes) with warehouses and industries.
  • Remote ends such as Silchar in the North-East and Porbandar in Saurashtra get better access to markets.

  • Without feeder roads, the gains stay along the corridor and do not spread inland.

  • Implementation gaps and the way forward:

  • Phase I approved 34,800 km in 2017, but only 19,826 km was built by February 2025 [3].
  • The usual causes are delays in land acquisition, slow forest and environment clearances, and rising costs.
  • Fix: link Bharatmala's coastal and port roads with Sagarmala and PM Gati Shakti. This cuts the need to unload and reload goods when they switch between road, rail and sea.

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication" (primary)
  2. 2Parliament Question: Status of Ambitious Bharatmala Pariyojana (PIB)pib.gov.in · tier 1
  3. 3Implementation of Bharatmala Pariyojana (PIB)pib.gov.in · tier 1
  4. 4Progress of Bharatmala Project (PIB)pib.gov.in · tier 1
  5. 5Bharatmala Pariyojana (PIB)pib.gov.in · tier 1