NEW DELHI: As the Narendra Modi government marks its first year in office, it’s getting ready to unveil an ambitious project aimed at making a vast improvement to the country’s roads — upgrading existing ones and building new links to connect remote areas in the hinterland. It’s also aiming to make a key difference in the efficacy of surface transport by building 350 railway bridges and level crossings.Cabinet notes have been prepared for the various programmes — Sethu Bharatam, Rashtriya Rajmarg Zila Sanjoyukta Pariyojana and Backward Area Highways. “We have already started DPRs (detailed project reports) of these projects,” road secretary Vijay Chibber told ET.Chibber confirmed that the cabinet notes would be moved this week. Experts said the projects could change the connectivity landscape of the country.“It will send a good signal that some action is starting in the road sector and that will lead to investment. This however has to be backed by some action on the ground for which the markets have been waiting,” said Vishwas Udgirkar, senior director, Deloitte India.

The idea is to create an extensive network of seamless, high-quality highways that would speed up movement of goods and ease passenger traffic. Sethu Bharatam has been conceived to provide such connectivity along national highways with the construction of 150 railway over-bridges and 204 level crossings in one year. Several highway projects have been stalled because such bridges haven’t been completed.

The road ministry has also identified around 123 district headquarters not linked to the national highway (NH) network for development. As part of the National Highway Development Programme, most of the roads on these stretches will be upgraded to match NH standards.The government has also drawn up a plan for a 2,000 km project to connect underdeveloped areas in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan to the national highway network. All these areas have been identified as part of a non-Naxal belt that needs urgent government attention. “These areas are sparsely populated and one of the reasons for poor development is lack of connectivity,” Chibber said.A separate religious circuit is being planned to improve the connectivity of areas considered sacred to boost tourism. Religious centres such as Nanded and Katra are among those that will be connected by national highways as part of the 2,000 km project. The road transport and tourism ministries have prepared a coordinated action plan toward this end.The road ministry was allocated funding of Rs 42,913 crore in the FY16 budget, which won’t be enough for what it has in mind. But funding isn’t regarded as a constraint. While private investment is still not very forthcoming in the sector, the ministry is hopeful of a favourable response to its latest hybrid annuity model. It expects at least 40-45 projects based on this model—60% of the project cost will come from private investors and the remaining 40% in five equal installments from the National Highways Authority of India.The government will also bear the revenue risk in projects with low anticipated traffic flow. It is also hopeful of a pickup in public private partnership projects next year. The Modi government has identified the upgrade of the country’s road infrastructure as a key focus area. It is planning to build 30 km of highway per day by 2016-17. In the last one year, the government has managed to achieve an average target of 11 km per day after awarding 7,972 km of roads in FY15.