Bharatmala Project:

• Our country has 54,82,000 KMs of road network. This is the second largest road network in the world (US with 64,80,000 KMs is the largest).
• You will be surprised that only 2% of this network (1,10,000 KMs) is in the form of National Highways (numbering 87). But this 2% of National Highway network handles 40% of the road traffic volume.
• Bharatmala project is centrally sponsored and funded project. Once completed this will be 83,677 KMs long and it is currently having a budget of Rs. 5.35 lac crore.
• Starting from Gujarat, it will move to Rajasthan, Punjab, J&K, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram (upto Myanmar border). (Image courtesy – The Masterbuilder)

Sagarmala Project:

• It is a Rs. 8.5 lac cr investment initiative of the Govt of India. The purpose is to set up ne large ports, rebuild existing ports, development of 14 Coastal Employment Zones and to create 1 cr new jobs.
• India has 7,516 KMs of coastline with 12 major and 200 minor ports.
• It is a maritime project and is equivalent of Bharatmala project which is land based.

Setu Bharatam:

• The scheme proposes to make all national highways rail crossing free by 2019.
• The cost of the project is Rs. 10,200 cr.
• It proposes to cover 208 such crossings.

(Image Courtesy – Maps of India)

Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC):

• Currently, same railway tracks are shared by passenger trains and goods trains
• 3,300 km “freight-only” Railway Tracks are being constructed for goods trains
• will decongest the tracks for passenger trains, increase passenger safety and prevent train delays
• first stretch to be operational by mid-2018 and full corridor by 2020
• will enable double the train lengths, carrying 2.5 times the load at triple the current speed (from 25 km/h to 75 km/hr)
• one freight train = 1300 trucks removed from roads, thus resulting in decongestion of traffic on highways too

NSTC (International North South Trade Corridor):

• The current trade route from India to Europe and Russia is through ship and enters from Rotterdam port, Netherlands (blue line in the image below)
• INSTC includes shipping route from India’s Mumbai port to Bandar Abbas port in Iran and then road + rail routes to Russia and beyond (red line in the image below)
• this 7,200km trade route will shorten the distance by 40% and cost by 30% Goods transfer time from India to Russia will be reduced from 40 days to 25 days. Additionally, India will gain access to large Central Asia market through a financially optimal route
• planned to be fully operational by mid-2018

Bullet Train (High Speed Rail) on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route:

• 508km high speed track, including 7km undersea tunnel
• train speed of 320km/h, will reduce travel time between business-critical cities of Mumbai and Ahmedabad from 7 hrs to 2 hrs
• planned to be operational by 2022

(Image Courtesy – Map of India)

GIFT (Gujarat International Finance Tec City):

• A Large business district between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar being developed as India’s first smart city with world-class infrastructure and features like Automated Waste Collection System (AWCS), District Cooling System (DCS), underground cables for electric supply, smart parking, smart transport, public wi-fi, traffic analytics and environmental sensors to monitor pollution levels in real time
• Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with tax incentives for attracting Banks, Stock Exchanges, I.T. companies and campuses of renowned global universities. Expected to generate one million jobs including direct and indirect employment
• planned to be completed by 2023 (Image Courtesy – The Indian express)

Navi Mumbai Airport:

Currently handling handles 25% of India’s air traffic, Mumbai International Airport, operates one flight every minute on a single runway

• Navi Mumbai International Airport is being constructed with two parallel runways and a capacity to handle 80 flights per hour with 10 million passengers per year
• One of the few airports in the world where aircrafts will be refueled by underground pipes with no tankers required to refuel the planes
• first phase (one runway and one terminal building) to be operational by end of 2019
• second phase by 2022 will increase the capacity to 25 million passengers. By end of phase 4, capacity will increase to 60 million passengers per year

(Image Courtey – DNAIndia)

Mumbai Trans Harbour Link:

• This will be country’s longest sea bridge at 22.5 km.
• It will connect Mumbai’s eastern suburbs with the mainland across the harbour through a 16.5 km sea bridge and a viaduct.
• The project will cost around Rs18,000 crore and completed by 2019. It will connect Sewri in central-east Mumbai with Nhava Seva across the harbour.

(Pic Courtesy – The Indian Express)