Which of the following projects have been developed under the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana'?

Question

Which of the following projects have been developed under the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana'?

1. Delhi-Meerut Expressway

2. Eastern Peripheral Expressway

3. Chenani-Nashri tunnel

4. Ambala-Lucknow Expressway

5. Bengaluru Mysuru Expressway

Choose the correct answer:

1. A. 1, 2, 3 and 4 only
2. B. 1, 2, 3 and 5 only (Correct answer)
3. C. 2, 3 and 4 only
4. D. 3, 4 and 5 only

Correct Answer

Option B — 1, 2, 3 and 5 only

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is 1, 2, 3 and 5 only.

Key Points

• Four of the five projects listed were developed under Bharatmala Pariyojana:
  • Delhi–Meerut Expressway (1) — the first expressway in India with 14 lanes, and a dedicated cycle track for part of its length.
  • Eastern Peripheral Expressway (2) — also called the Kundli–Ghaziabad–Palwal (KGP) Expressway, built to divert non-Delhi-bound traffic around the capital, and India's first highway lit entirely by solar power.
  • Chenani–Nashri Tunnel (3) — in Jammu & Kashmir, now named the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel, India's longest road tunnel at the time of its opening, cutting the Jammu–Srinagar journey by about two hours.
  • Bengaluru–Mysuru Expressway (5) — a ten-lane access-controlled corridor on NH-275, reducing travel time between the two cities to about 75 minutes.
• The Ambala–Lucknow Expressway (4) is the odd one out in the marked answer.

Additional Information

• Bharatmala Pariyojana was approved in 2017 as an umbrella programme of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, subsuming several older schemes. Its components include Economic Corridors, Inter-Corridor and Feeder Routes, National Corridor Efficiency Improvements, Border and International Connectivity Roads, Coastal and Port Connectivity Roads, Expressways, and the completion of the residual NHDP works.
• Phase I covers about 34,800 km, of which roughly 9,000 km are economic corridors, 6,000 km inter-corridor and feeder routes, 5,000 km national corridor efficiency improvements, 2,000 km border roads, 2,000 km coastal and port connectivity roads and 800 km expressways.
• Its stated aim is to optimise the efficiency of freight and passenger movement by bridging infrastructure gaps — the guiding idea being that the corridors are chosen from origin–destination freight studies, not from an incremental list of existing highways.
• Related programmes: Sagarmala for port-led development, UDAN for regional air connectivity, PM Gati Shakti as the multi-modal planning master plan, and the National Infrastructure Pipeline.
• India has the second largest road network in the world, of roughly 63 lakh km. National Highways make up about 2% of its length but carry around 40% of the traffic.