new delhi, April 30 -- The Union road transport and highways ministry is recalibrating its highway-building strategy to focus on decongesting urban India, with plans to prioritize ring roads and bypass corridors around nearly 50 cities with populations exceeding one million, two people aware of the development said. The shift marks a departure from the earlier emphasis on long inter-city corridors under programmes such as Bharatmala, towards integrating highways with urban mobility needs. According to the first person quoted above, the new approach of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will ensure that long-distance highway traffic is diverted outside dense city cores, enabling seamless freight movement while reducing congestion within cities. The broader objective is to lower logistics costs and support investment and growth. As per government estimates, the country's logistics cost has already fallen from 13-14% of GDP a few years ago to close to 8% now, driven by GST reforms, FASTag, e-way bills, digital tracking systems, and the expansion of highways and freight corridors under PM Gati Shakti. Queries mailed to MoRTH and NHAI remained unanswered till press time. "The new highway construction strategy would keep at least around quarter of annual highway construction target of about 10,000 km for building bypasses and ring roads around cities with higher vehicle density. This would require an investment of about Rs.35,000 to 40,000 crore annually," the second person said. MoRTH has been provided a record capex allocation of Rs.2.94 trillion for 2027, which includes construction of 10,000 km of national highways, including 3,000 km each of access-controlled high-speed corridors and highway bypasses and ring roads. The decongestion strategy would first focus on completing work around 47 million-plus cities as per the 2011 population census, the second person said. This would be followed by similar projects around cities with a population of 5 lakh or more. "We have already done some work on bypasses and ring road systems in few of the million plus cities. Work is on to identify stretches along cities where such road network would be required," the second person added. "Bypasses and ring roads are critical interventions for India's next phase of infrastructure development. They enable segregation of long-haul and intra-city traffic, improving both logistics efficiency and urban mobility," said a spokesperson of highway developer and infrastructure entity Dilip Buildcon Ltd (DBL). "Projects such as the Urban Extension Road (UER) demonstrate how peri-urban infrastructure can unlock capacity without overburdening existing city networks. Given company's experience in executing large, complex road projects across geographies, we see strong execution opportunities in such integrated corridor developments," the spokesperson added.' As of early 2026, India's national highway network has reached approximately 1,46,572 km, representing a 61% growth from 91,287 km in 2014. Four-lane and above highways have expanded to 43,512 km, and operational expressways exceed 3,000 km. Despite modern infrastructure promising speeds of 100-120 kmph, average vehicle speeds on national highways hover around 50 kmph due to congestion, mixed traffic and bottlenecks. "Focusing on bypasses and ring roads is a practical step toward easing congestion in rapidly growing Indian cities. However, infrastructure alone won't solve the problem. Better traffic management, stronger public transport systems, and coordinated urban planning will be equally important. A balanced approach combining highways with city-level mobility solutions is key to achieving long-term, sustainable decongestion," said Shailesh Agarwal, partner (infrastructure), EY India....