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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →When state and central agencies plan roads on the same corridor without coordinating their networks, a new highway may draw traffic from an existing one instead of creating enough new demand to justify its cost. Zafar Khan of Vertis Infrastructure Trust raised that concern in an ETInfra interview published October 8, 2026. His comments describe a potential risk, not a measured national outcome or a project-by-project finding.
How can parallel highways affect project economics?
A road’s economics depend in part on how much traffic uses it. If a new route substantially overlaps an existing corridor, some drivers may switch to the newer road. That can leave the established road with less traffic and, where toll revenue is tied to usage, lower revenue than expected.
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The new road may still provide public benefits: shorter journeys, additional capacity, improved access or a more reliable alternative. The key distinction is between network-wide value and the revenue exposure of an individual concession asset. A project might benefit the wider transport network while weakening the business case for a nearby tolled road—or it might attract new trips and improve connectivity enough to justify its cost. The outcome depends on the corridor and cannot be inferred from the fact that roads run in parallel.
Khan, Vertis’s Executive Director and Joint Chief Executive Officer, argued that coordination is needed between state and central authorities to avoid what he called unnecessary capital expenditure. He also described parallel highways as an unnecessary use of capital. These are the views of an infrastructure trust executive; the interview does not quantify the resulting traffic diversion, revenue loss or public cost.
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What example did Vertis cite?
Khan pointed to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as examples where, in his view, large-scale coordination between state and central authorities was lacking. In the Uttar Pradesh example, he described three parallel highway-type roads and cited traffic of 10,000 passenger car units (PCU). ETInfra reported that figure as Khan’s statement; the available material does not independently verify the count or establish the roads’ precise alignments and traffic conditions.
ETInfra also reported that the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) has executed expressway projects alongside existing national highways. The interview does not include corridor maps, matched traffic forecasts, cost-benefit analyses or project-level revenue data that would show whether a particular expressway diverted traffic or duplicated capacity.
Why does agency coordination matter?
India’s highway delivery involves more than one public body. A June 2025 valuation report hosted by Vertis describes the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) as having a national remit and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as an implementing agency; it also lists state and other agencies involved in road programmes. That institutional context helps explain why plans made at different levels may need to be reconciled. It does not, by itself, establish that coordination failed on any specific project.
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Coordination is most useful before routes, budgets and concession terms are fixed. Agencies can compare proposed corridors and schedules, check whether projects serve the same origins and destinations, and assess whether one road is likely to change traffic assumptions for another. That process can expose overlapping plans early, when changing scope or sequencing may be more practical than after construction or concession awards.
What should planners compare before approving overlapping routes?
The following are decision questions for evaluating a corridor, not findings about the Uttar Pradesh or Bihar examples:
- Traffic overlap: How much forecast demand is shared between the proposals, and how much represents new trips or traffic shifted from other routes?
- Incremental benefit: What travel-time, capacity, safety or connectivity improvement does the additional road provide beyond the existing network?
- Whole-life cost: How do construction, operations and maintenance costs compare with the incremental benefit, including the cost of maintaining existing routes?
- Revenue diversion: If an existing road is tolled, how sensitive are its projected revenues to a competing route, and how robust are the traffic assumptions?
- Risk allocation: Do concession terms allocate traffic and revenue risks in a way bidders can assess, and are dispute-resolution arrangements clear?
- Network coordination: Have the relevant central, state and other agencies reconciled route plans, timing and assumptions before committing capital?
Answering these questions requires corridor-specific maps and forecasts, not just a count of nearby roads. A parallel alignment may serve different destinations or provide valuable redundancy; conversely, two independently prepared forecasts may each assume traffic that the other project also expects to capture.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why does the issue matter to road investors?
Vertis is an Indian road-sector infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), formerly known as Highways Infrastructure Trust. Its website says it was registered under the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s InvIT regulations on December 23, 2021. ETInfra reported that Vertis held 8,428 lane kilometres across nine states, with 28 projects across nine states, more than ₹27,000 crore in assets under management and an average residual concession period of about 13 years, citing Khan and the trust in its October 2026 interview. These are reported portfolio figures, not independently audited here, and they should not be treated as current beyond that reporting context.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFor a road InvIT, a new route can matter if it changes the traffic and revenue outlook for an asset with a toll concession. But a risk claim is not proof that an asset has suffered a loss: estimating the effect would require actual and forecast traffic, toll arrangements, road characteristics and competing-route data. The interview supplies no quantified impact for Vertis or for the wider sector.
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What else did Khan say about road concessions?
In the same interview, Khan said the current build-operate-transfer toll (BOT-Toll) structure was not satisfactory for bidding and pointed to dispute-resolution arrangements and confidence in project terms as concerns. He also discussed FASTag and baseline revenue forecasting in the context of toll revenue. These are his reported views, not independent evidence that a particular concession model or toll technology is effective or ineffective.
The interview additionally addressed hybrid annuity (HAM), engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), and toll-operate-transfer (TOT) models, as well as Vertis’s stated TOT pipeline expectations. Those comments concern separate financing and portfolio topics; they do not establish whether any parallel-road proposal is economically justified.
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