MoRTH fixes 20,000-km road projects award on radar

The transport ministry has set an astounding target of awarding 20,000 km of road projects this fiscal, which is about 25% more than the 17,055 km awarded during 2017-18. The construction targets for 2018-19 have been set at 16,420 km, of which 9700 km will be constructed by MoRTH, 6,000 km by NHAI and 720 km by NHIDCL as compared to 9,829 km length of National Highways was constructed during 2017-18. Out of the total road projects awarded in the last fiscal, 8,652 km were awarded by the ministry, 7,397 by NHAI and 1,006 by NHIDCL. Similarly, per day construction target has been set at 45 km for the current year, against last year‘s about 27 km per day last fiscal , transport minister, Nitin Gadkari said. This year the focus would be more on construction, but the project award would be more than last year. There will also be focus on completing the DPRs of all the in principle declared NHs. He further said adding that yearly targets should be divided into quarterly targets so that there is no pressure at the end of the year.