Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on 3 June 2026 announced that the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the upgradation and widening of two sections of National Highway 347B in Madhya Pradesh. The decision covers conversion of the existing intermediate lane to a two-lane paved-shoulder standard on the Hiwarkhedi-Roshni-Ashapur-Rudhy stretch and widening from two to four lanes on the Deshgaon-Julwaniya stretch.

In his post on X, Rijiju said the cabinet, 'under the leadership of Hon'ble PM Shri Narendra Modi ji', had cleared the two interventions on NH-347B, tagging the announcement with #CabinetDecisions. The post was accompanied by a single image and made no mention of project cost, alignment length or completion timeline.

Context

NH-347B is a secondary national highway corridor running through parts of Madhya Pradesh, linking smaller towns and agricultural belts to larger interstate arteries. The two stretches identified in the cabinet decision sit within districts that have historically depended on intermediate-lane and two-lane roads for the movement of farm produce and passenger traffic.

The announcement follows a pattern in which the Union Cabinet periodically clears individual highway widening packages rather than bundling them into a single phase. Such standalone approvals typically precede the publication of detailed project reports and tender notices by the National Highways Authority of India and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Policy backdrop

The clearance fits within the broader framework of Bharatmala Pariyojana, the umbrella road development programme approved by the Union Cabinet in 2015 to develop and upgrade roughly 34,800 km of national highways across India. Phase-I of Bharatmala explicitly targeted the conversion of intermediate-lane highways to two-lane paved-shoulder configurations, particularly in central India.

Successive cabinets have used incremental approvals to close connectivity gaps between rural districts and major economic corridors. The focus on NH-347B aligns with the central government's stated objective of expanding the core national highway network towards 50,000 km by the end of the decade, with Madhya Pradesh receiving multiple widening and upgradation packages under this arc.

Stakeholders and impact

The most direct beneficiaries are residents along the Hiwarkhedi-Roshni-Ashapur-Rudhy and Deshgaon-Julwaniya corridors, who currently rely on narrower carriageways for daily commuting and goods movement. A paved-shoulder upgrade typically improves safety for two-wheelers and slow-moving vehicles by separating them from through traffic.

Logistics operators moving agricultural produce, cement and consumer goods within Madhya Pradesh are expected to gain from the four-laning of the Deshgaon-Julwaniya section, which should reduce travel time and vehicle operating costs. State-level transport authorities and contractors empanelled with the central highways ministry are the other principal stakeholders in the execution phase.

What's next

The immediate steps to watch are the publication of detailed project reports, tender notices and land-acquisition notifications for the two approved sections of NH-347B. The timeline for award of works, appointment of concessionaires or engineering-procurement-construction contractors, and the start of physical work will determine how quickly the cabinet decision translates into commuter-visible change on the ground.

For the Modi government, the back-to-back clearance of mid-sized highway packages reinforces its messaging on rural-to-corridor connectivity. For Madhya Pradesh, the NH-347B decision adds to a growing list of central allocations that will shape the state's freight and passenger road economy in the coming years.