Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship road-building push faces widespread disruption and delay as the US-Israeli war on Iran chokes off supplies of essential bitumen.
A collapse in shipments from the Gulf of bitumen — the thick, viscous hydrocarbon used as a binder in asphalt — is causing increasing concern in countries from Italy to Australia, where shortages are adding to the cost and complexity of combating potholes. In South Korea, some local authorities have been slowing down road construction.
The alarm is particularly acute in India, which has a government target of building 100km of highway a day and which imports about 40 per cent of its bitumen, almost all of it from the Gulf. Analysts at India Ratings and Research have warned of mounting “cost escalations and execution delays, especially for state and regional road projects dependent on imported bitumen”.