The India Story: Long journey traversed, but 90% of nation yet to be built

When the 21st century dawned, India’s infrastructure landscape was largely defined by slow progress, scattered projects, and limited private participation. Fast forward to 2024, and the country stands at a pivotal moment — one where roads stretch across vast distances, bullet trains are on the horizon, and ports hum with the promise of global trade dominance. 

From highways connecting once-remote regions to aviation networks carrying millions, India’s infrastructure story is one of transformation. Yet, this journey, spanning a quarter century, has been marked by both groundbreaking achievements and challenges, like stalled projects and safety concerns, with much left to build as the nation looks toward its ambitious future of being a $30 trillion economy by 2047. 

 

Roads and Highways: The journey to growth 

As India was about to complete a year of the new millennium, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in December 2000, launched Phase-1 of the National Highways Development Programme — the golden quadrilateral, which was the largest highway development project in India at the time, and is seen by many as the first major step towards integrated infrastructure development in the country. 

Now in 2024, India’s national highway network has nearly tripled to 146,000 kilometres (km), with modern amenities like access-controlled expressways and GPS-based toll collection plazas. 

The added infrastructure, aided by the rapid rise of automobile ownership, has also allowed a private industry to flourish, with toll collections being a key part of the metamorphosis. 

According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), commuters have paid Rs 2.1 trillion in tolls on national highways since the year 2000. Of this, Rs 1.4 trillion has been pocketed by private corporations. 

The median compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of national highway tolls over the past 25 years is 12 per cent. 

This period has also seen the transformation of national highways from simply physical infrastructure to an asset class — the private sector has entered the scene in a big way and the once-isolated realm of the thekedar (contractor) has now embraced the fine-suit world of finance professionals. 

Just in the past five years, $11.3 billion worth of highways have changed hands across the Centre, states, and the private sector. Srishti Ahuja, partner at Ernst and Young (EY), expects this number to reach $25-30 billion in the coming five years, with an increased need for recycling of capital expected in the sector. 

However, 2024 has been a difficult year for highway growth, as the country’s biggest highway development programme — Rs 10 trillion Bharatmala project — has been shelved amid repeated red tape-induced delays and significant cost escalations. 

A Vision 2047 umbrella programme, designed to cost around Rs 20 trillion over 25 years, was developed to subsume the Bharatmala project, but it has also been kept aside amid a change of approach from the Centre. 

“Major projects in the Bharatmala pipeline and new expressway projects are being taken up by the Union Cabinet on a project-to-project basis, and will be sanctioned in a scattered manner,” a senior government official said. 

With Lok Sabha elections, highway contract-awarding has seen a low of 1,152 km as of August. SBICaps expects the momentum to revive and the ministry could see the current financial year (FY25) ending with around 8,500 km of

project awards. 

Railways: A slow track to progress 

When Mamata Banerjee, then railway minister in the Vajpayee government, presented the millennium’s first Railway Budget in 2000, the Indian Railways network had shown little signs of improvement since independence. 

“When India attained freedom in 1947, we had about 54,000 kilometres of railway network in the country. Today, on February 25, 2000, the network has a length of 62,800 route kilometres. In 53 years, independent India has added less than one-fourth of what was built in 94 years of colonial rule,” Banerjee had said in her speech. 

While several innovations have taken place in terms of passenger convenience and technological advancements, core infrastructure of the railways continues to be a concern. 

According to the latest available data, the route length of Indian Railways is 68,584 km — implying that only 231 km of new railway routes and tracks have been added each year on average in the last quarter of a century — less than a km a day.

The year 2024 saw India attempting to build its first bullet train. The tender has been awarded to state-owned BEML (Bharat Earth Movers Limited), which will complete the trainsets — designed to run at 280 km per hour — by 2026. 

However, multiple accidents, including several deadly collisions such as the Kanchenjunga Express crash, have also raised questions on the operational efficiency of the national transporter, even as data suggests that the number of consequential accidents has reduced in the last decade. 

Ports: Anchoring a global vision 

“Over the past 25 years, the port industry in India has undergone a remarkable transformation, evolving from traditional, labour-intensive operations to highly automated, technology-driven processes,” said Ravinder Johal, chief operating officer, Ports & Terminals (Operations and Commercial), MENA and Subcontinent, DP World. 

“Looking ahead, the key to further growth lies in creating integrated supply chains that link ports to hinterland logistics hubs, utilising rail, road and shipping networks for seamless movement of goods,” he added. 

Two unprecedented wars and a complete dismantling of the established global supply chain have prompted India to rethink its maritime strategy, and the government has set its sights on becoming a leader in shipping and shipbuilding, to ensure that national trade interests are not compromised on account of international volatility. 

“We’ll invest Rs 54 trillion to be among the Top-5 nations in shipbuilding by 2047. This is out of a cumulative investment plan of Rs 80 trillion,” Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told this paper.

 

Aviation: Reaching new heights 

In December 2000, there were just 3,568 domestic flights per week operating across India. Air India, its subsidiary Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, and Air Sahara were the four major airlines operating in the Indian airspace. The Indian aviation sector has undergone a dramatic change in the last 25 years and it is clear from the fact that about 22,484 domestic flights per week are operating now, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. This is almost seven times the flights operating 25 years ago.

The market at the beginning of the century was dominated by full-service carriers but today, the largest airline in India is IndiGo, a low-cost carrier (even though it is starting business class on select flights). 

While the intense competition in the last 25 years led to the demise of many airlines, including Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, and Go First, it also pushed the airlines to become cost-efficient and brought airfares down, making air travel accessible to many. 

IndiGo and privatised Air India now own more than 90 per cent of the domestic passenger market. While IndiGo recently ordered 500 planes from Airbus, Air India has placed orders for 570 planes with both Airbus and Boeing, showing the scope of growth in the Indian aviation sector. “The future prospect of the Indian aviation sector is bright and it is very much possible that new airlines will take birth to challenge the dominance of the two carriers. While many have gone bankrupt, many continue to find the Indian aviation sector to be glamorous,” a sector veteran said. 

Building for the future 

While a lot of capital has recently gone into infrastructure, in a recent address, Niti Aayog Chief Executive Officer (CEO) BVR Subrahmanyam said that an alternative perspective on India’s ambitions to grow tenfold and become a $30 trillion economy by 2047 is that 90 per cent of the country is yet to be built. This will require substantial investments in infrastructure, experts concur. 

Coming into 2025, the Centre has on its plate the largest projects in India’s history to expedite — mega ports in Galathea Bay, Great Nicobar, and Vadhavan in Maharashtra, and the India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor, which will see India establish seamless trade with Europe and West Asia. 

Additionally, introduction of a long-distance Vande Bharat train, ensuring track and train capacity to cater for the masses, the country’s first high speed rail corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the Kashmir Rail Line, completion of the Rs 1 trillion Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, and reduction in safety lapses on roads and tracks will be key targets for the government and industry.