Highway Construction Hits 40% Of FY23 Target So Far

Union Minister of Road, Transport, and Highways Nitin Gadkari told the Lok Sabha on Thursday that total highway construction in the country stood at 4,766 km till November-end this year, against the target to construct 12,200 km of them during 2022-2023.

The ministry said the speed of the construction was lagging in the first half of 2022-2023 due to the intervening monsoon, but it picked up in the second half.

In April-November 2022-2023, around 2,038 km of 4/6/8 lanes of national highways were created, which is higher than the 1,806 km built in the year-ago period, Gadkari stated. 

The construction of 2-lane national highways stood at 1,607 km in April-November this year, against 1,747 km formed in the corresponding fiscal period.

The government is repeatedly following sanctioned projects, and as part of this activity, 719 hindered national highway projects have been specified across various states, the minister said.

Out of 2,431 ongoing projects, around 719 are going on behind schedule across the country due to protracted monsoon, above-average rain in some states, the Covid pandemic, hikes in raw materials prices, issue relating to land acquisition, and statutory approvals, among others.

The minister also clarified that no extra cost is incurred because of delayed projects.

Earlier, the ministry approved four-laning of Shahpur bypass to Muktai Nagar section of NH-753L passing through Jalgaon in Maharashtra and Burhanpur district in Madhya Pradesh at HAM under Bharatmala project at a cost of Rs 784.35 crore.

The ministry also approved the four-laning of the Bhiwani-Hansi road section of the national highway in the Bhiwani and Hisar districts of Haryana on a hybrid annual model. The project under Bharatmala Pariyojana has a budget of Rs 1,322.13 crore.