Rs 250b Indian highway corridors to link trade points with Bangladesh

India will link its major highway corridors to international trade points at a cost of Rs 250 billion to facilitate trade with Bangladesh and other bordering countries.

Indian Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that about 2,000 km of highways will be constructed to link major highways corridors to international trade points.

The minister said this will be to facilitate trade with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

"The project is part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana," he added.

On October 25, the Indian cabinet approved a mega plan to build 83,677 km of highways by March 2022 at a cost of about Rs 7 trillion.

The project includes the ambitious Bharatmala project at a cost of about Rs 5.35 trillion.

Gadkari said the entire Rs 5.35 trillion for Bharatmala has been tied up as Rs 2.37 trillion would flow from the Central road fund, Rs 2.05 trillion as market borrowing, Rs 340.00 billion from monetisation of highway projects and Rs 600.00 billion through budgetary allocation.

According to The Hindu, the minister said there are also several other projects under implementation aim to facilitate India’s international connectivity with neighbouring countries in South Asia and ASEAN.

Earlier this month, Gadkari had said India has proposed a $1-billion line of credit to promote sea, air and road connectivity projects with ASEAN countries.

Apart from this, it has set up a project development fund of $77 million to develop manufacturing hubs in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.