If the railway network is being packaged by Mamata Banerjee as an engine for inclusive growth, Union Minister of Surface Transport and Highways Kamal Nath is looking at highways through the same prism to promise an unprecedented upgrade at the rate of building 20 km per day, a ten-fold jump over the rate achieved in the last UPA government.

“Building roads and highways does not need merely an increase but a quantum jump if we are to catch up,” Nath told The Indian Express. “The vehicle population is growing at 13 per cent a year, the national highways account for only two per cent of the roads but handle 40 per cent of the traffic. I have set a target of 20 km of road per day leading to 7000 km in a year, my job is to create a paradigm shift in attitude, kilometres and approach.”

Underlining the importance of road-building as a creator of economic activity across all sections and, therefore, an important ingredient of inclusive growth, Nath said: “The development of Europe and the United States was fuelled by the road-building programme. With the global economy under stress, particularly in the West, India has to strategize its growth trajectory that takes into account its diversity and demographics. In this context, the natural economic stimulus has to be infrastructure and road infrastructure.”

At present, 70,500 km roads are national highways and another 130,000 km are state highways.

Although the best model is to have all roads tolled, he said, he admitted “the reality is that all roads are not tollable as areas through which these pass may not have enough economic activity to generate toll revenue.”

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