Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Launches RAJMARG PRAVESH Portal for Highway NOC Approvals

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has unveiled an upgraded version of the RAJMARG PRAVESH web portal, a digital platform that centralises the process of applying for No Objection Certificates (NOCs) and related permissions for activities along National Highways. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari presided over the launch, which was attended by senior officials from the Ministry, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), and the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).

The portal is intended to serve a broad base of applicants — including private citizens, commercial enterprises, and government agencies — who require formal clearance for activities that interface with or encroach upon National Highway land and right-of-way. With India's National Highway network continuing to expand, the volume of such applications has grown correspondingly, placing increased administrative pressure on existing approval systems.

RAJMARG PRAVESH covers a wide spectrum of permission categories. Citizens and private entities can use the portal to apply for access from National Highways to private properties, industries, fuel stations, rest area complexes, wayside amenities, and connecting roads. The platform also accommodates applications from both government and private organisations for the laying of utilities — including water pipelines, gas pipelines, optical fibre cables, electrical lines, and other services — either alongside or across National Highways.

Previously, these permissions were processed through separate channels or involved significant manual coordination with regional National Highways offices. The consolidated portal brings these categories under a unified interface, allowing applicants to track the status of their submissions and receive time-bound responses from the concerned authorities.

The breadth of use cases the portal addresses reflects the range of stakeholders who regularly seek highway-related clearances. Small businesses looking to establish wayside facilities, telecom operators seeking to lay fibre across highway corridors, and state governments requiring utility crossings for infrastructure projects are among the categories that stand to benefit from a more structured submission and approval process.

The launch is positioned within the central government's broader effort to reduce procedural friction for businesses and individuals engaging with public infrastructure systems. Improving ease of doing business has been a stated administrative priority, with multiple ministries undertaking reforms to shift paper-based or manual processes to digital platforms in recent years.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has previously introduced several digital tools aimed at reducing the time and complexity associated with highway-related clearances. RAJMARG PRAVESH's upgrade continues this direction by adding features intended to make the approval workflow more predictable, with defined timelines for each stage of the process. A time-bound approval mechanism is significant in the context of infrastructure and commercial projects, where delays in obtaining highway access or utility crossing permissions can affect project schedules and financing.

The Ministry has indicated that the platform is designed to make the overall permission process more transparent, with applicants able to view the current status and expected timeline for their applications. Transparency in regulatory approvals is a frequently cited area for improvement in India's investment climate assessments, and a portal-based system with visible tracking offers a structural response to that concern.

The revamped RAJMARG PRAVESH portal is web-based and accessible to applicants without requiring physical presence at government offices. Applicants can submit supporting documents, pay applicable fees, and receive responses through the platform. The system is expected to reduce back-and-forth between applicants and offices, which has historically added to the overall processing time for NOC requests.

The online submission framework also creates a documented record of applications and decisions, which can serve administrative and accountability purposes. By routing applications through a centralised system, the Ministry is also better positioned to generate data on application volumes, processing times, and category-wise trends — information that can inform future policy or resource allocation decisions within highway administration.

The portal is accessible to individual citizens applying for private property access permissions as well as large organisations managing utility infrastructure at scale. This dual applicability positions it as a broad-based administrative tool rather than a narrowly targeted intervention for one category of user.

The launch event was attended by a cross-section of senior leadership from the Ministry and its associated bodies. Secretary (Road Transport and Highways) V. Umashankar was present, alongside Director General (Road Development) and Special Secretary Vinay Kumar Rajawat. NHAI was represented by its Chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav and Member (Admin) Vishal Chauhan. NHIDCL Managing Director Krishan Kumar also attended, along with other senior officials from the Ministry.

The presence of officials from both NHAI and NHIDCL at the event reflects the operational scope of the portal, which covers National Highways administered by both bodies. NHAI manages a substantial portion of the National Highway network, while NHIDCL focuses primarily on infrastructure development in border and remote areas, including the northeastern states and union territories. Permissions along highways under both bodies' jurisdictions are expected to be processed through the RAJMARG PRAVESH platform.

India's National Highway network has grown considerably over the past decade, with the total length surpassing 145,000 kilometres as of recent estimates. This expansion has been accompanied by an increase in commercial and residential development along highway corridors, generating a higher volume of applications for access permissions, utility crossings, and wayside facility approvals.

The administrative infrastructure required to process this volume of applications has not always kept pace with the growth of the physical network. Upgrading the digital systems through which these applications are managed represents an attempt to address that gap, ensuring that the approvals process scales alongside the expansion of the highway network itself.

National Highway corridors are also increasingly focal points for logistics, retail, fuel, and hospitality infrastructure, with the government having designated stretches for the development of wayside amenities complexes under separate policy initiatives. The RAJMARG PRAVESH portal's inclusion of wayside amenity permissions within its scope aligns with these broader development objectives along the highway network.