National highway construction pace slows down to 20.99 km a day in FY23: Govt

The pace of national highway construction in India has slowed down to 20.99 kilometres a day during the first nine months of the current financial year, reveals official data published by the central government. The pace of national highway construction between April and December 2022 was significantly slower than the record 37 kilometres a day touched a record high in 2020-21, reveals a PTI report.

The pace came down to 28.64 kilometres a day in 2021-22 due to the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from that, longer than usual monsoons in some parts of the country too disrupted the national highway construction pace in the 2021-22 financial year, claimed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The data revealed by the ministry claims that a total of 5,774 kilometres of national highways have been constructed across the country by April-December 2022, as compared to 5,833 km constructed in April-December 2021-22 financial year.

The ministry has further revealed that the official target of national highway construction has been kept at 12,000 kilometres for the current financial year. Considering the target and the current pace of construction, it seems MoRTH is highly unlikely to achieve the goal in this financial year.

The ministry has further said that it had constructed 10,237 kilometres of national highways in the financial year 2019-20, while the total construction volume in FY 2020-21 and FY 2021-22 were 13,327 kilometres and 10,457 kilometres, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has said that it is committed to bringing down the number of deaths and injuries in road accidents across the country. To achieve that, MoRTH claims to be taking organised steps.