Union budget 2019: Will lay 1.25000 kms of rural roads says Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

The country will add 1.25 lakh kilometers of roads under phase III of PM Gram Sadak Yojana spending ₹ 80,250 crore.



While presenting budget allocation for the ministry of roads and highways, the Finance minister mentioned the projects undertaken in the last four years. She said, “ The Bharatmala, Sagarmala and Udaan projects have worked towards reducing rural and urban divide.”
She also called for One Nation, One Card for connectivity.

Sitharaman also pushed for public private in metros to develop metros across the country and aid completion of sanctioned projects.

The metro rail project has also been a milestone setter as 300 km of new projects were approved, while 210 km stretch operationalised. The total length of metro rails have now reached 657 km.

Comprehensive restructuring of national highways programme under the 2nd phase of the Bharatmala project is also set to be operationalised.


In the Interim Budget, the government had increased the budget for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways by 5.58%.

Highways sector is one of the best performing areas. The government expenditure in the area went up from ₹ 34,345 crore in 2014-15 to ₹ 78,625 crore in 2018-19.

India’s road transport network is amongst the longest in the world, with over 5.5 million kms. The network aids the movement of almost 64.5% of all goods in the country and 90% of its passenger traffic.

The ministry has big plans coming up in the next few years. By 2022, the ministry has plans to construct 200,000 km of national highways in the country.

For financial year 2019 itself, the ministry has set target to award 15,000 km projects and construction of 10.000 km of national highways. A total of about 295 major projects for bridges and roads are also expected to be completed during the same period.

The ministry’s Bharatmala project is its latest high end endeavour, which aims at improving connectivity in border and other areas. The project is set to cost ₹ 5.5 trillion for the development of about 50,000 km of road networks.