The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has set a target to construct 18,000 km of highways in 2022-23 at a record speed of 50 km per day.
The government's overall target is to develop two lakh km of National Highway Network by 2025, the Ministry said.
The speed of construction of the national highway (NH) was slowed to 28.64 km a day in 2021-22 due to the Covid-19 pandemic-related disruptions and a longer-than-usual monsoon in some parts of the country. The pace of NH construction in the country had touched a record 37 km per day in 2020-21.
According to Road Transport and Highway Ministry, 10,457 km of national highways were laid in 2021-22 as compared with 13,327 km in 2020-21.
"Covid and a long rainy season, particularly towards the end of the year in November and December, slowed highway construction," said road transport and highways secretary Giridhar Aramane.
A lot of construction in 2021-22 was complex work involving four or six-lane roads, he said.
However, the private investments in the highway sector would likely rise from around Rs 20,000 crore a year now to nearly Rs 1 trillion in the next six to seven years, Amit Kumar Ghosh, additional secretary, ministry of road transport and highways.
“Private investment had risen from Rs 16,000 crore in 2016-17 to over Rs 22,000 crore in 2019-20. There is an increase in the investors’ confidence in the road sector. We estimate private investments to reach a level of Rs 50,000-60,000 crore by 2024-25 and rise further to more than Rs 1 trillion by 2028-2029 or 2029-2030," Gosh said.
(Published 15 May 2022, 15:09 IST)
JOIN US