Public private partnership in national highways : Indian perspective ; prepared for the Roundtable on: Public Private Partnerships for Funding Transport Infrastructure: Sources of Funding, Managing Risk and Optimism Bias (27-28 September 2012)

India's road network of over 4.1 million km is second largest in the world consisting of expressways, national highways, state highways, major district roads and other roads. These roads carry about 65 per cent of freight and 80 per cent of passenger traffic. National highways constitute only 1.7 per cent of the road network, but carry about 40 per cent of the total road traffic. Road Transport has emerged as the dominant segment in India's transportation sector with a share of 4.7% in India’s GDP in 2009-10. The number of vehicles on Indian roads has been growing at an average pace of 10.16% per annum over the last five years. Hence, development of road network assumes paramount importance in the context of a rapidly growing economy.