Ministry Of Road Transport And Highways (MoRTH)

Policy Update
Nomula Pranay Goud

Introduction

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is the leading ministry in the infrastructural development of India. The road network of India is the second-largest globally, with a reach of 6.3 million kilometers, and the traffic that passes through it is approximately 65 percent of freight and 80 percent of the passengers. The given research paper examines the mandate and the structure of the ministry, major initiatives, and the contribution to the economic growth of the nation.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is a central government department concerned with planning of the national highway, constructing and upkeep, and in street safety. MoRTH, which used to be a section of the Ministry of Surface Transport was formed in 2000, when the ministry was divided into two departments, i.e. The department of road transport and highways and The department of shipping.

MoRTH is currently in charge of developing the highways and maintaining the roads in India . It is also a policy-making authority and has control over road transportation and the traffic rules. MoRTH operates in collaboration with:

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)
National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL)
Department of Public Works of the states (PWDs)
Border Roads Organisation (BRO)

Functioning

The functioning of a ministry in relation to its goal achievement approaches, what it is structured to do, systems and schemes, as well as coordination methods. The operations of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) involve policy formulation, implementation of strategies for national highways, vehicle control and management, and harmonizing with the state governments and other stakeholders.

1. Policy Formulation and Planning:

The MoRTH Nationalizes policies on road transport and highways.
Puts together five-year and annual development and maintenance plans of National Highways (NHs).
Collaborate with the states and other ministries to synchronize transport and infrastructure development with the national aspirations.

2. National Highways Development: Traffic, connectivity and tactical significance of roads are identified as National Highways.

The construction, maintenance and design of NHs by using: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation, Ltd. (NHIDCL), Border Roads Organisation (BRO)

The funding models used are: EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction), BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer), HAM (Hybrid Annuity Model), PPP (Public-Private Partnership)

3. Road Transport Laws and Vehicle Regulation: MoRTH manages the road transport sector by development and establishment of Motor Vehicles Act and amendment.

Publication of standards or regulations pertaining to vehicle fitness, fees regulation, emission standards, registration and license.

Inter-state transport harmonisation and establishment of common standards in India.

4. Road Safety as well as Awareness: In a bid to minimize accidents and deaths, MoRTH:

Supports the safety laws through the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019.
Facilitates road safety audits, driver training and awareness.
Collaborates with the Road Safety Council, non-governmental organizations and institutions of learning to rectify behavior of road users.
Endorses the establishment of trauma centers and emergencies.

5. IT Integration, Research and Innovation: Research and development in highway access, materials and sustainable engineering.

Applications of such technologies as: FASTag Toll plazas, Vehicle tracking using GPS, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).

Internalization into the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan of integrated infrastructure development.

6. Monitoring and Evaluation of Projects: The tracking of projects is done by means of a dashboard and e-portals such as:

INFRACON
e-RAKSHA
Bhoomi Rashi (acquisition of lands)

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Performance

It is indeed comforting to note that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has contributed to the rapid increment in India infrastructure development to reach a record 12,349 km in 2023-24 construction of national highways in creating new records of a single fiscal comprehensive year. As it makes huge strides in the development of expressways (e.g. Delhi-Mumbai) and digital tolling (FASTag).

1. Infrastructure Development & Building: The highway networks in India have seen a sharp rise as compared to the previous years under Modi government where the length of National Highways (NH) has gone up to more than 1,46,000 km in 2024 as compared to approximately 91,287 km in 2014- a more or less 60-percent increase in length. Making India to have the second-largest highway network in the world.

National High-Speed Corridors increased up to 2,474 km in the same time period against 93 km.

2. Building success (FY 2023 24): This huge spending sponsored 12,349 km of national highways (record highest annual performance) Overall, close to 75 percent of the money (1.8 lakh crore) literally went towards the construction of roads with 30,000 crore used to buy land and 50,000 crore in developing the expressways.)Lane increase was 9,642 km (17% more than in the previous year)

The substantial improvement in the daily construction rate was 33.8km/day when compared to 12.1km/day in 2014-15.

3. Project Additions (2023-24):

8,581 km of new segments of highways to be granted.
By the end of December 2024, the FY 2024-25 had 5,852 km of construction.

4. Capital investment that sets records: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has spent the highest-ever amount of 2.40 lakh crore (year 2023-24 against a budgetary allocation of 2.70 lakh crore) in revolutionizing the highway infrastructure in India.

5. Growth in multi-billion projects such as:

Delhi-Mumbai expressway to be nearly fully operational by late 2025.
Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway, Karnataka segment opened in December 2024, and the entire corridor should be opened by August 2025.
25,000-30,000km, two-lane road that will be developed into four-lanes in a 10 lakh crore project.

Impact

The ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has been a transformational department in the growth of infrastructure in India, which has had great influence on economy, connectivity, efficiency in logistics and quality of life.

1. Infrastructure Development: The development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs) in India is under MoRTH. Highway construction in India has reached a new high in the last decade.

Impact:

There has been a growth in the national highway network of India, which covered 91,287 km (2014) and grew to over 1,46,000 km (2023).
Construction of roads per day increased by an average of 12 km (2014) to an estimated 30-36 km in 2021-23.

2. Economic Impact: Effective road transportation improves trading, connectivity and logistics. Multimodal transport is boosted by road projects such as Bharatmala Pariyojana and Gati Shakti.

Impact:

Decline in the percentage of logistics cost from 13-14% of GDP to about 8-10% of GDP.
Generation of millions of indirect and direct jobs through construction of roads.

3. Reforms in Road Safety: Road accidents are very rampant in India. MoRTH implemented the Motor Vehicles Act, 2019, in order to enhance safety.

Impact:

Stiffer fines on traffic offenses.
Electronic monitoring, FASTag and black spot rectification.
iRAD (Integrated Road Accident Database) was launched.

4. Green Transport and Sustainability: MoRTH is incorporating the use of sustainable practices in road creation.

Impact:

Road making using plastic waste.
Promote EV infrastructure systems, biofuels, and ethanol fuels.
Electric highway pilots in progress (e.g. Delhi-Jaipur corridor).

5. Digital Governance & ease of doing business: Introduction of Vahan and Sarathi portals to register vehicle and driving license.

Impact:

Less corruption, less delays.
Portability between states and the transportation service digitization.

Emerging issues

Exposure to new issues and challenges such as delayed land acquisition amongst others, escalating cost of projects, road safety and green pressure due to the increasingly constructed infrastructure are some of the new problems affecting the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH).

1. Budget pressure and budgetary frameworks:

Debt overhang of NHAI: Although NHAI will receive a 56,000 crore pre-payment in FY 2024-25, debt consists of above 2.7 trillion as well as its projected costs of debt service are rising twofold by 2028. MoRTH is now banking on asset-monetisation (InvITs) to curb the load.
Hybrid-Annuity Model (HAM) slowdown: Roughly a third of HAM projects which have been awarded since 2020 are already behind 4-6 months and in some cases they have simply yet to get to the appointed date, with liquidity pressures on not just small-scale but also middle-scale developers.

2. Delays of projects and overruns in cost:

Bharatmala Phase I runaway: Cost overruns of 35-50% and realignments have caused the government to drop any successor umbrella programme of building highways in favour of approving each corridor separately.
Almost 700 projects delayed: A parliament report in March 2025 says 35% of the delays are due to land-acquisition problems and 30% due to railway clearances, MoRTH is rewriting rules so that l per cent land availability is mandatory prior to award.
As of March 2024, roughly 44% of highway projects of more than 150 crores in 32 states were delayed.
State road transport undertakings recorded a cumulative loss of about 30,000 crore Indian rupees due to low fleet utilization and an increase in fuel prices.

3. Road-safety crisis:

Deaths at an all-time high (approx 1.78 lakh in 2024): 60% of the deaths belong to the 18-34 age group.
The Supreme Court (May 2025) has ordered an efficacious eight-hour working-day and check on schedule. The MoRTH is experimenting with Aadhaar-based logging of hours and plans to make AC cabs mandatory in 2025.
Bharat-NCAP passenger-car scores were launched in 2023, MoRTH currently is also proposing the same type of star ratings and ADS standards to trucks and e-rickshaws.
Black‑spot rectification: Noted 13,795 accident prone areas on the NHs, 9,525 have been handled through short term, 4,777 permanent solutions.
They are currently adopting Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based tolling as a way of modernizing toll collection.
The project of Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Zero Fatality Corridor reduced the cases of mortality by 52% after its implementation.

4. Eco sustainability including climate resilience:

Recent studies indicate >1 landslide per km on NH-7 and 30 % as re-activation; slope-stability protection is under-financed.
MoRTH has already completed a set of guidelines spelling out solid-waste embankments in the urban areas, and up to 8 % plastic-bitumen mix in street asphalt, this is still pilot only.

5. Human Resource & capacity gaps

Chronic shortage in number of truck-drivers (truck-to-driver ratio = 1: 0.65) and the paucity of highway-maintenance skills, not least in the tunnels and mountain roads, have motivated a JICA-MoRTH capacity-building programme.

Way Forward

Institute Centers of Excellence in Road Safety, Pavement Engineering and Sustainable Transport. Join hands with IITs, NITs and CSIR to develop R&D in road technologies.
Apply climate adaptation infrastructures in highway infrastructure especially in location areas prone to flooding and hilly areas. Improve the emergency response systems in highways.
Foster Hybrid annuity Model (HAM) and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) models. Exercise less bureaucratic hindrance to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and to seek other forms of privy investment.
Implementation of FASTag to 100 percent compliance and e-Tolling implementation in the whole nation. Introduce the tolling using GPS under pilot basis and increase to the entire country slowly.Make Bharat Series (BH) vehicle registration to facilitate vehicle mobility.
Green Highways: Further carry out the Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification & Maintenance) Policy,2015 that needs to clean up the environment along highways. Utilization of the Recycled Materials: Promote the utilization of wastes plastic, fly ash, and other environment-friendly products in building roads.

References

About the Contributor: Nomula Pranay Goud, Masters student in International Relations at Manipal University Jaipur and a Research intern at Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI).

Acknowledgement: The author extends his sincere gratitude to Aasthaba Jadeja and fellow interns, who provided guidance throughout the process.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.