Market Reports

Infrastructure Sector in India

1	Overview: India’s Infrastructure
2	Quick Facts: Infrastructure Sector of India
3	Major Roads & Highway Projects of India
4	National Highways: Construction and Achievements
5	Indian Railway Industry Outlook
6	Snapshot: India’s Ports Overview
7	Airports Development Outlook
8	Recent Development/Investment in the Infrastructure Sector

Overview: India’s Infrastructure

Robust Demand

India has to enhance its infrastructure to reach its 2025 economic growth target of US$ 5 trillion.
India’s population growth and economic development require improved transport infrastructure, including investments in roads, railways, and aviation, shipping and inland waterways.

Attractive Opportunities

In 2023, Road Transport and Highways Ministry constructed 12,349 km of national highways and such growth is expected to continue in the future years.
The government has launched National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) combined with other initiatives such as ‘Make in India’ and the production-linked incentives (PLI) scheme to augment the growth of the infrastructure sector.

Policy Support

The government has set ambitious targets for the transport sector, including the development of a 2 lakh km national highway network by 2025 and expanding airports to 220.
The government announced several incentives to attract private sector participation and foreign direct investment, which include the government bearing the cost of the project feasibility study, shifting of utilities, & environmental clearances.

Increasing Investments

Under Budget 2024–25, capital expenditure outlay for infrastructure development and employment generation is to be increased by 11.1% to Rs. 11 lakh crore, which will be 3.4% of the GDP
Infrastructure Finance Secretariat is being established to enhance opportunities for private investment in infrastructure, that will assist all stakeholders in attracting more private investment in infrastructure

Quick Facts: Infrastructure Sector of India

India plans to spend Rs. 112 trillion on infrastructure through ‘National Infrastructure Pipeline’ in the next five years

India has the 2nd largest road network in the world with about 66.7 lakh kms

National Highways (NH) account for 2% of the total road network and carry over 40% of total traffic

World’s second-largest bus manufacturer and fourth-largest manufacturer of cars

National Highway construction pace increased from about 12 km/day in 2014-15 to about 28.3 km/day in 2022-23

In 2022-23, total of 1.46 lakh kms lengths of national highways constructed

NHAI created Guinness World Record by constructing 75 km continuous Single Lane Bituminous Concrete Road in a record time of 105 hours 33 minutes, between Amravati and Akola on NH 53 in Maharashtra

NHAI along with Maha Metro achieved Guinness World Record by constructing the longest Double Decker Viaduct (3.14 km) with Highway Flyover & Metro Rail supported on a single column in between 3 metro stations in Nagpur

India has the 4th largest railway system in the world which consists of a total track length of 1,26,366 km with 7,335 stations

5,243 km of track length was achieved during 2022-23 as compared to 2,909 Kms during 2021-22

In 2023, an average of 14.4 km per day of railway track was laid

Railways, allocated Rs. 2.4 lakh crores for the development of new semi-high-speed Vande Bharat trains

400 new generation Vande Bharat Trains to be manufactured during the next three years

It is anticipated that 12 Bn passengers will travel via railway by 2031

National Rail Plan aims to increase the modal share of Railways in freight to 45% by 2030 from the existing 27%

Total of 118.6 lakh houses were sanctioned under PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Avas Yojana) up to 2023 and the total investment for these sanctioned houses is 8.0 lakh crore

India intends to raise its ranking in the Logistics Performance Index to 25 and bring down the logistics cost from 14% to 8% of GDP, leading to a reduction of approximately 40%, within the next five years

In December 2022, AAI (Airports Authority of India) and other Airport Developers targeted a capital outlay of approximately Rs. 98,000 crore in the airport sector for the next five years

India currently has the fifth-largest metro network in the world

Indian Government aims to total number of airports to be 200 by the end of 2024

Major Roads & Highways Projects of India

Shrinagar Kanyakumari Highway (NH44) is the longest highway in India. This highway connects many states and cities. The length of this highway is 4,112 km.
Porbandar Silchar Highway (NH27) is the second longest National Highway in India and is part of NS-EW Corridor of NHAI. This highway passes through the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam. The length of this highway is 3,507 km.
The Golden Quadrilateral is a national highway network connecting several major industrial centers of India. It forms a quadrilateral with all four major metro metropolises of India, viz., Delhi (north), Kolkata (east), Chennai (south), and Mumbai (west). The total length of this quadrilateral highway is 5,846 kms.

National Highways: Construction and Achievements

National Highways play very important role in the economic and social development of the country by enabling efficient movement of freight and passengers and improving access to markets
MoRTH and its implementing agencies have undertaken multiple initiatives in the last 9 years to augment the capacity of the National Highway infrastructure in India
The length of various categories of roads is as under:
- National Highways: 1,46,145 kms
- State Highways: 1,79,535 kms
- Other Roads: 63,45,403 kms

Major Events of 2023

Delhi-Vadodara Expressway: On October 2, 2023, the Prime Minister inaugurated a 5-kilometer-long stretch of the Delhi-Vadodara Expressway, developed at a cost of about Rs. 11,895 crore.
Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway: On 12^th March, Prime Minister inaugurated 118 km long Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway to the nation. Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway developed at a cost of about Rs. 8,480 crore.
On 31^st October, Union Minister for Roads Transport and Highways inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for 26 National Highway Projects with an investment of more than Rs. 17,500 Crore in Guwahati, Assam.
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways inaugurated 7 National Highway projects worth Rs. 6,500 crore in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. The construction of the Ballia Link Expressway will create better connectivity in eastern Uttar Pradesh with Chhapra, Patna, and Buxar districts in Bihar.

Indian Railway Industry Outlook

Indian railways span thousands of kilometers, practically covering the entire nation, making it the fourth largest in the world after the US, China, and Russia
The railways operate 13,523 passenger trains and 9,146 freight trains daily
The daily passenger count of the Indian railway is around 24 million
Railways earned 69% of its internal revenue from freight and 24% from passenger traffic. The remaining 7% was earned from other miscellaneous sources such as parcel service, coaching receipts, and sale of platform tickets
Indian Railways is developing and creating technology in areas such as signaling and telecommunication, with 15,000 km being converted into automatic signaling and 37,000 km to be fitted with ‘KAVACH’, the domestically developed Train Collision Avoidance System
The government has also announced plans to invest in high-speed trains, such as the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project, which is being implemented with the assistance of Japan
The railway sector in India aims to contribute about 1.5% to the country’s GDP by building infrastructure to support 45% of the modal freight share of the economy
Railway passenger traffic is projected to reach around 12 billion per year by 2031 and Freight traffic is expected to cross 8,220 million Tonnes by 2031
India Investment Grid (IIG) showcases 822 investment projects in the Railway sector in India worth Rs. 20,000 Bn across all states

Snapshot: India’s Ports Overview

India is strategically located on the world’s shipping routes, with a coastline of approximately 7,517 km
India has 13 major and 200 non-major/intermediate ports. Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust is the largest major port in India, while Mundra is the largest private port
Recently, the government launched the ambitious Sagar Mala Program with the vision of port-led development and growth of logistics-intensive industries
Under the program, Rs. 9,800 Bn would be invested across 415 projects across the following identified components:
- Port Modernization and New Port Development
- Port Connectivity Enhancement
- Port-Linked Industrialization
- Coastal Community Development

The growth rate of cargo handled by major ports is 8.8%
In 2023, cargo handling capacity of all major ports was 1,617 MTPA
In FY 23, non-major ports accounted for 45% of all cargo traffic at Indian ports as a result of a notable shift in traffic from major ports to non-major ports.
The Government of India has allowed foreign direct investment (FDI) of up to 100% under the automatic route for projects related to the construction and maintenance of ports and harbors.

Airports Development Outlook

India’s aviation sector is experiencing a meteoric rise, fuelled by soaring demand and the government’s unwavering commitment to its growth through supportive policies
The civil aviation industry in India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing industries in the country during the last three years
India has become the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world and is expected to overtake the UK to become the world’s third-largest aviation market by 2024
By 2030, India is expected to overtake China and the United States as the world’s third-largest air passenger market
AAI (Airports Authority of India) has taken up the development of new and existing airports with a projected capital expenditure of around Rs. 25,000 crores in next five years. This includes construction of new terminals, expansion and modification of existing terminals, expansion and strengthening of existing runways, aprons, Airport Navigation Services (ANS) infrastructure, control towers, technical blocks, etc.
The Public Private Partnership (PPP) airports at Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru are undertaking major expansion projects of around Rs. 30,000 crores by 2025. Additionally, Rs. 36,000 crores have been planned for investment in the development of new Greenfield airports across the country under PPP mode.
Government of India has accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for the setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports across the country
The springboard for such airport development has been the government’s policies and initiatives

Recent Development/Investment in the Infrastructure Sector

According to IBEF, India’s investments in infrastructure will rise to Rs. 143 trillion between financial years 2024 to 2030
The Government has decided to continue the 50-year interest-free loan to state governments for one more year to spur investment in infrastructure and to incentivize them for complementary policy actions, with a significantly enhanced outlay of Rs. 1.3 lakh crore
Private investments in the highway sector would likely rise from around Rs. 20,000 crore a year now to nearly Rs. 1 trillion in the next 6-7 years
In March 2024, road ministry sanctioned Rs 1,385.6 crore for the enhancement and reinforcement of 295 road development projects, spanning a total length of 2,055.6 km across various districts in Karnataka
In July 2023, India’s Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways inaugurated two National Highway projects with an investment of more than Rs. 3,300 crore in Lucknow
NHAI will come out with the third and fourth rounds of Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) to raise over Rs. 20,000 crore in FY24
In Feb 2024, Indian Railway Minister announced the launch of mass production of 50 new Amrit Bharat Express trains, also known as Vande Sadharan
In August 2023, Union Cabinet approved seven projects for Ministry of Railways at a cost of around Rs. 32,500 crore
In June 2023, IRCON (formerly Indian Railways Construction Company Limited) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited and Ayana Renewable Power Limited. This partnership will consider suitable opportunities for solar energy production for the Indian Railways, as they intend to increase the share of renewables in their overall energy mix
Under the Union Budget 2024–25, capital outlay of Rs. 2.55 lakh crore has been allocated to the Ministry of Railways
India has plans to invest Rs. 6,560 Bn in port projects by 2035
In March 2024, Prime Minister of India unveiled 15 airport projects worth Rs 9,800 crore
Adani Group will invest Rs. 60,000 crore over the next ten years to develop its airports. At present, the group operates seven airports in the country and has one under construction in Navi Mumbai. Together, these have an annual passenger handling capacity of 100–110 million. The group plans to increase its capacity by 2.5–3 times by 2040
In May 2023, Union Civil Aviation Minister said that there is a plan to invest Rs. 1 lakh crore in airports in the coming days