Cabinet clears four national-highway projects

About ₹24,250 crore for ~728 km of highways across Odisha, Bihar, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh, on HAM and BOT models.

What happened

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister, approved four national-highway projects across four States in a single tranche.
• Together they cover roughly 728 km at a combined capital cost of about ₹24,250 crore.
• They span Odisha, Bihar, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh, and use a mix of the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT-Toll).
• Each is pitched as fixing severe geometric deficiencies, congestion in built-up areas and ribbon development, while cutting travel time and vehicle operating costs.
• All four are aligned with PM GatiShakti principles, connecting designated economic, social and logistic nodes to improve India's Logistics Performance Index.

For Prelims

• Who approves road projects of this size: the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) — note it is the CCEA, not the full Cabinet, that cleared these (a possible match/statements trap).
• Odisha — Rameshwar–Paradeep coastal highway: a new corridor of 160.18 km in two packages at ₹8,300.79 crore on HAM; 4-lane Rameshwar–Konark and 2-lane-plus-paved-shoulder Konark–Paradeep; passes Khurda, Puri, Kendrapada and Jagatsinghpur; connects 9 economic and 5 logistic nodes including Paradeep Port.
• Bihar — Khagaria–Purnea: upgrade of NH-31 and NH-231 to 4-lane over 143.53 km at ₹3,936.05 crore on BOT (Toll), including a greenfield Purnea bypass; links to PM Gati-Shakti economic nodes and major railway stations.
• Telangana — Armoor–Jagtial–Mancherial + Jagtial–Karimnagar: widening of NH-63 (HAM) and NH-563 (BOT-Toll) to 4-lane across three packages, 190.76 km at ₹7,597.16 crore.
• Madhya Pradesh — NH-347B: upgrade of the Hiwarkhedi–Roshni–Ashapur–Rudhy and Deshgaon–Julwaniya sections, 233.65 km at ₹4,415.60 crore on HAM, with a Khargone bypass; touches aspirational and tribal districts (Khandwa, Barwani, Betul).
• The combined picture: ~728 km and ~₹24,250 cr, with concession periods of about 17.5 years (HAM) and 20 years (BOT-Toll).
• What HAM is: in the Hybrid Annuity Model, the government funds 40% of project cost during construction and pays the remaining 60% as deferred annuities over the operations period; the developer does not bear toll/traffic risk — the authority (NHAI) collects toll. It blends the old EPC and BOT models.
• What BOT (Toll) is: in Build-Operate-Transfer (Toll), the private developer finances, builds and operates the road, recovering its investment by collecting tolls during the concession before transferring it back — so the developer bears traffic risk.
• Why these specific corridors: all four fix congested, geometrically deficient stretches with heavy ribbon development; dedicated greenfield bypasses (e.g. Purnea in Bihar, Khargone in MP) separate long-distance traffic from local commuter traffic.
• Node-linked planning: the corridors are designed to connect PM Gati-Shakti economic nodes (SEZs, mega food parks, fishing/seafood and pharma clusters) and logistic nodes (ports like Paradeep, airports, railway stations, MMLPs), and to generate lakhs of person-days of direct and indirect employment.
• Who builds and tolls them: the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) — a statutory body under the NHAI Act, 1988, within MoRTH — implements and (under HAM) collects toll on national highways.
• Curator-verified context: these are executed by NHAI under MoRTH and are aligned with the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, launched on 13 October 2021, which uses a GIS platform to coordinate multimodal infrastructure across ministries.

For Mains

Syllabus: GS3.9 · Linkage L2