The Union Budget 2021 has rightly laid special emphasis on expanding highways in the country. It will further stimulate the sector of wayside amenities only to open up a slew of localized opportunities, which will prove to be a milestone in undoing the havoc caused in the people’s lives by the corona catastrophe.
The six pillars -- health and well-being, physical and financial capital and infrastructure, inclusive development for aspirational India, reinvigorating human capital, innovation and R&D, minimum government, and maximum governance – will be quite effective in building back our country post corona-crisis.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her first paperless Union Budget has proposed Rs 1,18,101 crore outlay for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, out of which Rs 1,08,230 crore is for capital, the highest ever and will be utilized in creating assets. India has a colossal opportunity to tap by putting in place the best of highways across the country, which has gained pace in the past six years.

The wayside amenities – which comprise retail fuel outlets, eating joints, outlets for locally produced agri products, crafts and other such items – are also aligned to the mission of doubling farmers’ income, a task which the Central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is executing in the mission mode.

The 3,500 km of national highway which includes Madurai-Kollam corridor and Chittoor-Thatchur corridor will be developed with Rs 1.03 lakh crore investments. In Kerala, 1,100 km of national highways will be developed at an investment of Rs 65,000 crore including Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor’s 600 km section. These highways will change the economic profile of the region.

The 675 km long national highway in West Bengal to be developed at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore, including the upgradation of the existing Kolkata-Siliguri route, will not only ensure seamless movement of traffic but will also unfold umpteen types of highway tourism opportunities.

The high CAPEX on the road infrastructure will also be a significant enabler in the free and faster movement of farm products, as well as induce large scale investments all along the countryside for building agro industries, cold storage chains, etc., thereby raise the farmer incomes substantially and also create millions of jobs around rural India.

During the FY 2021-22 we will also see the work on Delhi-Mumbai Expressway (remaining 260 km); Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway (278 km); Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor (210); Kanpur-Lucknow expressway (63 km); Chennai-Salem corridor (277 km); Raipur-Vishakhapatnam (464 km); Amritsar-Jamnagar, and Delhi-Katra taking off.
Similarly the proposal to launch the Hydrogen Energy Mission, which is in tune with Prime Minister Modi’s announcement at the ‘Third Re-inVest Conference’ in November 2020, is a timely move as there is a need to decarbonize heavy industries like steel and cement. The generation of hydrogen from renewable sources is a good idea.

“Green hydrogen, produced with renewable electricity, is projected to grow rapidly in the coming years. Many ongoing and planned projects point in this direction. Hydrogen from renewable power is technically viable today and is quickly approaching economic competitiveness,” a 2019 document titled, Hydrogen: A Renewable Energy Perspective by the International Renewable Energy Agency had said.

“The rising interest in this supply option is driven by the falling costs of renewable power and by systems integration challenges due to rising shares of variable renewable power supply. The focus is on deployment and learning-by-doing to reduce electrolyser costs and supply chain logistics. This will require funding. Policy makers should also consider how to create legislative frameworks that facilitate hydrogen-based sector coupling,” the report had added.

The overall sentiment post the budget presentation has been quite buoyant and positive and the Sensex moving above 3000 points in a couple of days is in itself a record, never seen before. It is one of the good initial indicators. However, the true testimony of the budget would be in its execution and offer deliverables as planned.