MoRTH plans to construct 40-km of highway daily this fiscal

The Union transport ministry has planned to construct 40-km of highways every day in the current financial year, beating its daily record of 37 km that was constructed during 2019-20. The ministry has exceeded the target for highway construction for the financial year 2021, despite the ongoing pandemic and had constructed 13,505 km of National Highways till 31 March 2021. Minister for Road Transport, Nitin Gadkari informed that the government is giving utmost priority to the development of infrastructure and has set a target of road construction worth ₹15 lakh crore in the next two years. The Union budget for fiscal 2022 increased the outlay for the road transport and highways ministry to ₹1.18 trillion and the ministry is confident that it will achieve the laid down target in current fiscal. While there is an improvement in passenger and commercial vehicles traffic post the first pandemic wave, vehicular road traffic has since dipped due to the second wave that is raging across the country. India has a 137,635 km national highway network and the government is expecting a private investment to the tune of ₹30,000 crore in the financial year 2021-22 through the hybrid annuity model and build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.