The Indian government, in its 2021-22 budget revealed on 1 February, announced another 19,500km of road and highways construction projects to be awarded by March 2022, aiming to build road connectivity and boost the economy.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Indian government would award another 8,500km of road projects and complete an additional 11,000km of national highway corridors. More economic corridors are also being planned in order to further boost road infrastructure.
Today's announcements come on top of the more than 13,000km of road, at a cost of 3.3 trillion rupees ($45.14bn) that has already been awarded under the Rs5.35 trillion Bharatmala Pariyojana project. Some 3,800km of roads have already been constructed under this project.
The ambitious plan promises that government funds for these projects would be disbursed to the ministry of road transport and highways. Infrastructure development was highlighted as the Indian government's second priority sector in its effort to boost the economy.
The following are key highway projects for this financial year and for the coming few years, that are expected to support road construction projects:
Projects to be awarded with construction due to start in 2021-22:
Northern India
- Delhi-Mumbai Expressway: A remaining 260km to be awarded before 31 March 2021
- Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor: A 210km corridor to be initiated in the current financial year
- Kanpur-Lucknow Expressway: A 63km expressway to be initiated in 2021-22
- Amritsar-Jamnagar project
- Delhi-Katra project
Southern India
- Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway: A 278km project to be initiated within this financial year
- Chennai-Salem corridor: A 277km expressway to be awarded
East and southeast India
- Raipur-Vishakhapatnam: A 464km passing through Chhattisgarh, Odisha and North Andhra Pradesh to be awarded
Projects in the coming years:
- 3,500km of highway projects in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu at an investment of Rs1.03 trillion, with construction due to start next year
- 1,100km of highways in the south Indian state of Kerala at an investment of Rs650bn that will include a 600km section of the Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor in Kerala
- 675km of highways in the east Indian state of West Bengal that cost Rs250bn including upgrades of an existing stretch
- 1,300km of highways to be built in the next three years in the far eastern state of Assam with Rs340bn of additional investment for projects that are underway
All these road and highway construction projects are due to support and increase demand for bitumen into India through 2021.
"We did expect that infrastructure would remain a key focus and hence bitumen demand should remain strong from India this year," said a key importer.
India's bitumen consumption is estimated to be in 6mn-7mn t/yr in 2021, in line with the consumption of 6.35mn t/yr in the 2019-2020 financial year that ended on 31 March 2020.
Despite the prolonged Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, India's bitumen consumption has risen to 2.1mn t/yr up to December 2020 or the third quarter of the current financial year, and up by 29pc year-on-year, supported by road works projects.
India's bitumen production is estimated at 5mn t/yr from local refiners, with approximate imports of 1mn t/yr. The Middle East remains the largest exporting region to India.

