India on Sunday inaugurated its first phase longest highwaya link route New Delhi And Mumbaibecause it leverages the infrastructure of coordination to catch up with geopolitical rival China.
The ambitious $13 billion project will eventually cut the road travel time between the country’s two largest cities in half, to 12 hours.
India is the world’s fastest growing major economy and will soon be recognized as the most populous, but its infrastructure is still decades behind that of its northern neighbour.
A sign on one of the new four-lane roads reads “Welcome to the Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway” – a route that spans a total of 1,386 kilometers (861 miles).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the first 246km leg on Sunday, linking the capital with the tourist city of Jaipur in Rajasthan.
It is “a sign of India’s growth”, he said, adding that “such investments in railways, highways, metros and airports are key to propelling forward”. growth rate of the country, attracting more investment and creating many new jobs”.
Asia’s third-largest economy has made a fresh attempt to decouple itself from China’s increasingly assertive supply chains and build its own economic prowess since the deadly military clash in China. their Ladakh border in 2020.
A cautious New Delhi has pushed ahead with many key projects, and the Modi government this month announced an unprecedented 33% increase in infrastructure spending.
India’s prime minister is expected to open at least a dozen major railway, highway, highway and port projects in the next few months.
– ‘Geopolitical score’ –
India has one of the largest rail networks in the world – employing 1.3 million people – but it is outdated and needs major investment in both rails and rolling stock, while authorities are seek to tap private capital to do so.
For its part, Beijing has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into infrastructure over the years, and China now boasts an extensive system of highways, glittering airports and, by far, a network of roads. The world’s largest high-speed rail.
India’s first high-speed railway, a 13 billion Japanese dollar project connecting Mumbai and Ahmedabad, is still under construction and has been plagued by land acquisition and other bureaucratic bottlenecks.
Harsh V. Pant, a professor at King’s College London, told AFP that with China “losing some of its aura”, Indian policymakers “feel that they are in a local position. political and geopolitical economy needs to be leveraged by higher infrastructure investments to make it an even more lucrative and attractive economy.”
China’s economic growth and infrastructure development began several decades ago, he added [India’s] so there’s still a lot of work they need to do to catch up with China.”
This story was published from the wire dealer’s feed without text modification. Only the title has been changed.
