MoRTH unveils 60,000-km additional highways building plan

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has proposed to develop additional 60,000 km of National Highways in the next five years, of which 2500 km are expressways and access-controlled highways, 9000 km economic corridors, 2000 km for coastal and port connectivity highways and 2000 km border road and strategic highways. Apart from this, the ministry also intends to improve connectivity for 100 tourist destinations and construct bypasses for 45 towns and cities during the period. The expenditure of ministry has increased from ₹33,745 crore in 2013-14 to ₹1,50,841 crore in 2019-20. Also, private investment amounting to ₹21,926 crore has been achieved during 2019-20. During the current year, an expenditure of ₹79,415 crore has already been incurred till November 2020, including IEBR of NHAI. Private investment of ₹8,186 crore has been achieved up to November 2020. MoRTH has taken various policy initiatives in the last six years and continued with the impressive pace of work achieved during these years. During 2019-20, projects worth about 8948 km length were awarded and completion was achieved in about 10,237 km length of roads. Due to consistent efforts, the length of the NHs has increased from 91,287 km in April 2014 to about 1,36,155 km as on 20 December 2020.