India sees radical change in transport infrastructure over the last 10 years
New Delhi: India has witnessed an unprecedented scale of infrastructure development over the past decade, driven by the success of a holistic and integrated approach under major national initiatives like PRAGATI, PM GatiShakti, the National Logistics Policy, Bharatmala, Sagarmala, and UDAN, according to an official report released on Wednesday.
The report encapsulates the rapid transformation that has taken place in the country's transport infrastructure across the highways, railways, maritime and civil aviation sectors of the economy on the back of massive investments made by the Central government in the last 10 years.
The report highlights that PM GatiShakti unified planning across 44 ministries and 36 states/UTs on a GIS-based platform. Launched in 2021, the PM GatiShakti national master plan is a comprehensive initiative to improve multimodal infrastructure connectivity across India's economic zones. Rs 100 lakh crore is being efficiently utilised through this integrated platform. Anchored on seven key sectors -- railways, roads, ports, waterways, airports, mass transport, and logistics infrastructure -- it promotes synchronised development across ministries and state governments.
The length of India's national highways network increased by 60 per cent from 91,287 km to 1,46,204 km during the last decade, with the pace of highway construction accelerating to 34 km/day from 11.6 km/day in 2014. There is an increase of 6.4 times in the Centre's investment in road infrastructure between 2013-14 and 2024-25. The road transport and highway budget has shot up by 570 per cent from 2014 to 2023-24.
The budget for Indian Railways has increased by more than nine times since 2014. The higher investment is reflected in the introduction of new Vande Bharat semi-high-speed trains covering 24 states/UTs along with 333 districts. A total of 68 Vande Bharat Trains are currently operational in the country, while another 400 world-class Vande Bharat trains are planned to be manufactured.
More than 31,000 km of new tracks have been laid since 2014, and over 45,000 km of tracks have been renewed since 2014. The pace of electrification of the track network has jumped from 5,188 route km between 2004-14 to more than 45,000 route km being electrified in 2014-25. Electrification has enabled annual savings of Rs 2,960 crore for railways (up to February 2025), ensuring greater financial efficiency, the report states.
It further highlights that the country's port capacity has doubled to 2,762 MMTPA in the last 10 years, with the overall turnaround time for ships improving from 93 to 49 hours. As many as 277 projects have been completed under Sagarmala in the big push to port infrastructure.
The report also lists major projects that have been completed in the ports sector, including the Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multipurpose Seaport. Inaugurated on May 2, 2025, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this Rs 8,800 crore project is India's first dedicated container transshipment port. Strategically located near international shipping routes, it can host the world's largest cargo ships. The port significantly reduces India's reliance on foreign ports and enhances economic activity in Kerala.
The New Dry Dock (NDD) at Cochin Shipyard Limited has been constructed at a cost of Rs 1,800 crore, with a length of 310 meters and a depth of 13 meters. It is capable of handling aircraft carriers of up to 70,000 tons. Besides, an international Ship Repair Facility has been set up in Cochin.
India's Inland waterways cargo has risen by 710 per cent (from 18 MMT to 146 MMT) in the last 10 years. Approval has also been given for Rs 5,370 crore investment to augment the capacity of National Waterway-1 (Haldia to Varanasi), this major inland navigation initiative enhances cargo movement on the Ganga River, the report points out.
The report also highlights that new routes and new airports have been added to the civil aviation landscape of the country. The number of airports operational in India has gone from 74 in 2014 to 160 in 2025. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the revival and development of unserved and underserved airports at a total cost of Rs 4,500 crore. In addition, the Expenditure Finance Committee also approved an amount of Rs 1,000 crore for the development of 50 more airports, heliports and water aerodromes under the UDAN scheme. This flagship scheme, launched in June 2016 to create affordable, yet economically viable and profitable air travel on regional routes, has been a big success with over 1.51 crore passengers having flown on these regional flights, the report added.
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