Govt. Will Build 3000 Kms Of High Speed Expressways Under Bharatmala 2.0; 120 Kmph Speed Allowed

Under Bharatmala 2.0, Govt. of India has announced that 3000 kms of expressways and 4000 kms of Greenfield roads will be constructed.

Drivers will be able to drive at 120 kmph speed on these roads!

Bharatmala 2.0: 4000 Kms of Greenfield Roads

As per fresh reports coming in, Govt. of India has committed 4000 kms of Greenfield roads, under which 3000 kms will be Greenfield, that is fresh, and new highways.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is spearheading the project has already announced tenders which contractors can bid.

Under Bharatmala Project, Govt. has declared that Rs 5.35 lakh crore would be spent on building 83,000 kms of expressways, and highways, all across the country.

This is part of  National Highways Development Project (NHDP), which was launched by late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998.

Bharatmala 2.0: The Routes

Under Bharatmala 2.0, whose detailed project reports have already been shared with the Govt. by NHAI, the follwing cities will be connected with new high speed expressways:

Pune – Ahmednagar – Aurangabad (220 kms)

Varanasi – Ranchi – Kolkata (650 kms)

Indore – Mumbai (515 kms)

Pune – Bengaluru (745 kms)

Kharagpur – Kolkata (120 kms)

Chennai – Trichy (310 kms)

Some of the finalized routes for Greenfield highway includes: Patna-Rourkela, Jhansi-Raipur, Solapur-Belgaum, Bengaluru-Kadappa-Vijayawada, Gorakhpur-Bareilly and Varanasi-Gorakhpur.

Bharatmala 2.0: The Focus

As per Govt., the main focus of Bharatmala 2.0 will be creating high speed expressways, and Greenfield roads which will have uninterrupted traffic.

Vulnerable road users such as Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists can be asked to use a separate road, and leave the expressway to the trucks.

Developers would be asked to avoid national parks and wild-life sanctuaries as well, even if that means taking a longer route.

Under the Bharatmala project, which is World’s biggest such road-connectivity project, 550 district headquarters will be connected via 4-lane highways.

The plan is to move 80% freight traffic (40% currently) to national highways by connecting 24 logistics parks, 66 inter-corridors (IC) of total 8,000 km (5,000 mi), 116 feeder routes (FR) of total 7,500 km (4,700 mi) and 7 north east multimodal waterway ports. (Source)

Drive At 120 kmph

Once constructed, drivers would be able to drive at 120 kmph, which is the new speed limit.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways led by Nitin Gadkari had announced in April that 120 kmph would be the new speed limit for expressways, while 100 kmph would be the speed limit on National Highways.

Earlier, it was 100 kmph on expressways, and 90 kmph on National highways.

Within city limits, taxies are allowed to drive at 70 kmph.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.

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