Introduction

Road transport is considered to be one of the most cost effective and preferred modes of transport, both for freight and passengers
Road transport also acts as a feeder service to railway, shipping and air traffic
India has second largest road network in the world
Building roads is labour intensive

US in 1930 gets out of employment crisis by building roads

Indian Road network comprises national highways, expressways, state highways, major district roads, other district roads and village roads
Expressways enable people to work at one place and reside in another place which reduces pressure in urban areas
National highways constituted 1.58 per cent of the total road network in 2012 but they carried 40 per cent of the total road traffic.

Governance

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways MoRT&H encompasses

Construction and maintenance of National Highways (NHs),
Administration of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019)
Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989,
formulation of broad policies relating to road transport, environmental issues, automotive norms,
fixation of user fee rate for use of National Highways etc.
Making arrangements for cross border movement of vehicular traffic with neighboring countries.
Rapid Pod Transport System

Govt Regulatory Organisations

Border Road Development Board/ Border Road Organisation

Border Road Development Board (BRDB) was set up in 1960 to co-ordinate the development of road communication in the border areas of the country
MoRT&H provides fund to BRDB
Border Road Organisation (BRO) is the executive arm of the Secretariat, BRDB
It is under Ministry of Defence

National Highway Authority of India NHAI

Statutory , National Highways Authority of India Act,1988
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was constituted to develop, maintain and manage the national highways vested or entrusted to it by the Central Government.
NHAI is headed by a Chairman with six full time members and four part time (ex-officio) members.
Authority has its field offices in the form of zonal offices, regional offices, project implementation units (PIUs) and corridor management units (CMU) spread all over the country.

Name	Responsibility of	Connects
National Highways	Union Government	State capitals
Expressways (6-8 lane)	Union	Major Cities e.g. Abad-Baroda
State highways	State Government	State Capital to District HQ
district roads	Zilla Parishad	District HQ to tehsil and Blocks
village roads	Gram Panchayat	Villages to neighboring towns

Schemes

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana

To provide single all weather connectivity road to eligible unconnected habitations of having population more than 500 in plain areas , more than 250 in hill/tribal, desert areas, left wing extremist areas.
Phase III - 2019-20 to 2024-2025

Consolidation of Through Routes and Major Rural Links connecting habitations to Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs), Higher Secondary Schools and Hospitals.

Projects/Programmes

National Highways Development Project (NHDP)

NHDP is mainly being implemented by National Highways Authority of India
Construction and maintenance of National Highways
Part of Fuel CESS imposed on Petrol and Diesel is alloca ted to NHAI for NHDP
Under NHDP, Govt took loans from World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation
NHAI also raised 54 EC (Capital Gains Tax Exemption under Section 54EC) bonds

Phase I	Golden Quadrilateral connecting four major cities Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata
Phase II	North South corridor- from Srinagar to Kanyakumari East West corridor -from Silchar(Assam) to Porbandar
Phase III	Build Operate Transfer basis of upgrade of highways of high density traffic, connectivity of state capitals and cities of economic importance
Phase IV	Widening of highways that are not part of Phase I,II,III. Convert existing single lane highways to two lanes with paved shoulders
Phase V	a number of four-lane highways will need to be upgraded/expanded to six lanes(need to be identified yet)
Phase VI	Expressways that would connect major commercial and industrial townships. Proposal Mumbai-Vadodara, Chennai-Bangalore, Kolkata-Dhanbad(Jharkhand)
Phase VII	Ring Roads, Bypasses, Grade Separators, Service Roads etc

Central Road Fund

The Central Road Fund (non-lapsable) was established by the Parliament by law (Central Road Fund Act 2000) in order to fund the development and maintenance of National highways, State highways and Rural roads.
Levy and collect by way of cess, a duty of excise and duty of customs on petrol and high speed diesel oil.

Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2017

To allocate a share of cess towards the development of inland waterways (2.5 percent)

Bharatmala project

Improving road connectivity to coastal/border areas, backward areas, religious places, tourist places,
It will undertake programs for improvement in Economic Corridors, Inter Corridors and Feeder Routes, National Corridor Efficiency Improvement, Border and International connectivity roads, Coastal and Port connectivity roads and Green-field expressways
Construction/ rehabilitation/widening of about 1,500 major bridges and 200 railway over bridges (ROBs)/railway under bridges (RUBs) on NHs,
Improvement of newly declared NHs providing connectivity to district headquarters,
Connectivity improvement programme for Chota Char-Dham (Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri)
Envisaged as an umbrella program that will subsume unfinished parts of NHDP
It will start in Gujarat and Rajasthan, followed by Punjab and subsequently traversing the Himalayan belt through Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and then to Mizoram

Not all NE states covered.
No southern states
All Himalayan states covered

National Highways Authority of India, National Highway and Industrial Development Corporation and state public works departments are implementing agencies
Resource mobilisation

Market borrowing
Central Road fund
Budgetary allocation
Monetizing Govt owned road assets

Setu Bharatam programme

Launched in 2016
building bridges for safe and seamless travel on national highways
to make all national highways free of railway level crossings by 2019

Bharat Stage Emission Standards

CAFE Norms

Toll-Operate-Transfer model

Applicable to National Highways that are built using public funding [NOTE: NOT PPP projects)
Under this model, the right of collection of user-fee or toll on selected national highway stretches is proposed to be assigned for a 30-year period to developers and investors against an upfront payment of a lump-sum amount to the government
During the period, operation and maintenance of such highway stretches would be the responsibility of the developer.
Thus this model monetizes public funded National Highway (NH) projects which are operational under TOT model

Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019

Guidelines to states for creating a framework for taxicab aggregators
prescribing standards for electronically monitoring highways and urban roads for enforcement and modernizing driver licensing

National Transportation Policy

Central government to develop a National Transportation Policy, in consultation with the states.
The Policy will: establish a planning framework for road transport, develop a framework for grant of permits and schemes, and identify and specify priorities for the road transport system.

Recall of motor vehicles

The Bill allows the central government to order for recall of motor vehicles if a defect in the vehicle may cause damage to the environment, or the driver, or other road users.
Vehicles may also be recalled if defects in a vehicle are reported to the central government.
The manufacturer will have to reimburse the buyers for the full cost of the vehicle, or replace the defective vehicle with another vehicle with similar or better specifications.

Motor Vehicle Accident Fund

The Fund will provide compulsory insurance cover to all road users in India.
The Fund will be credited with a cess or tax as approved by the central government, a grant or loan made by the central government, or any other source as prescribed the central government.
It will be managed by an authority specified by the central government.
Financing insurance to treat the injured and to compensate families of the dead in hit-and-run cases,

National Road Safety Board

Agency for road safety – It provides for a National Road Safety Board (as recommended by Sundar committee) to be notified by central government

Contractor or consultant responsible for road accidents for the design, construction, or maintenance of the safety standards of roads
Good Samaritans

The Bill defines a good samaritan as a person who renders emergency medical or non-medical assistance to a victim at the scene of an accident.
Protection of Samaritan from any civil or criminal action for any injury to or death of an accident victim, caused due to their negligence in providing assistance to the victim.

Taxi aggregators

The Bill defines aggregators as digital intermediaries or market places which can be used by passengers to connect with a driver for transportation purposes (taxi services).

These aggregators will be issued licenses by

state

They must comply with the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Stricter penalties: for offences such as drunken driving, dangerous driving etc
Aadhaar number is required to apply for driving license.
Uniform driver licensing system, protection of children and vulnerable road users, rationalizing penalties