India’s manufacturing ambitions are entering a phase where infrastructure will increasingly determine competitiveness. Building factories, attracting investments and expanding production capacity are only part of the equation.
The larger test is how efficiently raw materials, components and finished goods move between industrial clusters, warehouses, ports and markets.
As India advances towards becoming a global manufacturing and export hub, highways must evolve beyond conventional transport corridors into high-capacity, technology-enabled economic corridors integrated with multimodal logistics, ports and freight networks.
In line with the vision of PM Gati Shakti, the National Logistics Policy and the Government’s broader infrastructure agenda, efficient and resilient highways will be critical to reducing logistics costs, improving supply-chain reliability and enabling India to compete at scale.
For a manufacturing economy seeking speed, scale and global competitiveness, highways are no longer simply transport assets—they are strategic economic infrastructure that will shape India’s next phase of growth
This makes the convergence of PM GatiShakti, infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) and smarter highway management particularly important. Together, they can help address one of manufacturing’s persistent challenges: the cost, time and uncertainty involved in moving goods across the country.
NHLML can play a key role in translating the Gati Shakti vision into manufacturing-led growth by developing and facilitating integrated logistics infrastructure around national highways, including multimodal logistics parks, warehousing and freight connectivity.
By linking manufacturing clusters with highways, ports, rail and other logistics nodes, NHLML can help reduce logistics costs, improve supply-chain efficiency and create the infrastructure backbone required for India to scale manufacturing and become a globally competitive production and export hub.
Proposed structure to improve:
PM GatiShakti → Integrated Planning → NHLML → Logistics Infrastructure → Multimodal Connectivity → Lower Logistics Cost → Manufacturing Competitiveness
- GatiShakti as the planning framework: Integrates data on highways, railways, ports, industrial clusters, logistics hubs and economic zones to identify connectivity gaps and prioritise infrastructure.
- New highways as economic corridors: Use GatiShakti to identify where new highways, expressways and economic corridors are required to connect emerging manufacturing clusters, industrial nodes, ports and consumption centres
- NHLML as an execution enabler: NHLML can translate this integrated vision into MMLPs, logistics hubs, warehousing infrastructure and port-connectivity projects.
- Highway + logistics integration: New highways should be planned alongside logistics infrastructure rather than as standalone road projects—creating manufacturing-to-market corridors.
- Last-mile connectivity: Focus on connecting industrial parks, manufacturing zones, warehouses and MMLPs to the national highway network through efficient first- and last-mile links.
- Multimodal connectivity: Integrate highways with rail, ports, waterways and freight corridors, enabling seamless movement and modal shift.
- Strategic logistics hubs: GatiShakti data can help NHLML identify optimal locations for MMLPs and warehousing based on manufacturing activity, freight flows and proximity to highways and ports.
- Lower logistics costs: Better highway capacity, connectivity and multimodal integration can reduce travel time, vehicle operating costs, inventory costs and turnaround time.
- Unlocking private capital: Clearly identified highway and logistics corridors can create bankable infrastructure opportunities for InvITs and institutional investors.
- Manufacturing competitiveness: The combined approach creates a network where factories are connected efficiently to suppliers, warehouses, ports and markets, supporting India’s ambition to become a global manufacturing and export hub.
PM GatiShakti is important in this context because it shifts infrastructure planning towards greater coordination across modes and agencies. Better integration of highways with railways, ports, logistics parks and industrial corridors can reduce fragmented planning and improve the movement of goods across the supply chain.
However, connectivity alone is not enough. The reliability, capacity and quality of that connectivity matter just as much. India has made considerable progress in expanding its highway network. The next phase should focus not only on building more roads, but on ensuring that existing and new assets perform efficiently over their entire lifecycle.
For manufacturers, a highway should ultimately be measured by the economic value it enables. Digital traffic monitoring, predictive maintenance, efficient tolling, road-safety systems and timely capacity upgrades can reduce disruptions and improve journey predictability.
The financing of this infrastructure is equally important. Large-scale road development requires patient capital, professional asset management and sustained investment beyond the initial construction phase. InvITs can provide a mechanism for operational infrastructure assets to attract long-term capital while enabling developers to recycle capital into new projects.
The scale of this opportunity is becoming increasingly visible. A CRISIL assessment in May 2026 estimates that road-sector InvIT assets under management could grow 30 per cent to ₹3.9 lakh crore by March 2027, from ₹3 lakh crore in March 2026.
With toll-road assets accounting for around 85 per cent of road InvIT AUM, the expanding platform highlights the growing role of long-term capital in monetising and managing operational highway assets.
For India, the larger opportunity is to create a continuous infrastructure cycle: build, operate, maintain, monetise and reinvest. Capital recycling should ultimately support not only new construction, but also the maintenance, modernisation and performance of existing assets.
India’s manufacturing opportunity will depend on the strength of the ecosystem surrounding every factory. Reliable highways can reduce supply-chain uncertainty, improve market access and make industrial locations more viable.
The policy priority, therefore, must evolve from infrastructure creation to infrastructure performance. GatiShakti can provide the framework for coordinated planning, InvITs can support a deeper and more sustainable capital cycle, and smarter highway management can ensure that physical connectivity translates into economic efficiency.
India’s manufacturing ambitions will not be secured by factories in isolation. They will be secured by the networks that connect those factories to suppliers, markets and global trade routes.
The next infrastructure imperative is to build those networks with greater coordination, stronger capital discipline and a sharper focus on long-term performance.
(The author is Executive Director and Joint CEO – Vertis Infrastructure Trust and President – Highways Investors Association (HIA). Views are personal.)
