Govt aims to build 50 km highways totalling 18000 km in FY23, says Nitin Gadkari

The Indian government is aiming to increase its infrastructure spending and as part of that, it plans to build 18,000 km of highways across the country in the 2022-23 financial year, said Minister for Road, Transport and Highway Nitin Gadkari. He also said that the government is aiming to build a 50 km highway every day in this financial year. He also said that the government aims to complete building a two lakh km national highway network by 2025.

Speaking about the strategy, the road transport and highways minister emphasised that constructing world-class road infrastructure in a time-bound and target-oriented way is essential. He said in a tweet that the government is committed to expanding the national highway network across the country by constructing 18,000 km of roads in 2022-23 at a record speed of 50 km per day.

This plan has been revealed after India's national highway construction slowed down 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. Back in the financial year 2020-21, the pace of national highway construction in the country had touched a record 37 km per day.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which oversees the national highway construction across India, awarded projects for a total length of 6,306 km in the last financial year, while it was able to construct 4,325 km of highways, revealed an official statement. "During FY22, NHAI has awarded projects for a total length of 6,306 km of projects, which is the highest length awarded by the authority in the last three years," the statement said. The agency also said that in FY22, NHAI constructed a total length of 4,325 km, of national highways, which is higher than 4,218 km in FY21 and 3,979 km in FY20.