India to Construct 12,000-13,000 km of Highways in FY24

New Delhi, Feb 23 (PTI) The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) expects to construct between 12,000 km and 13,000 km of national highways in 2023-24 against the target of 13,813 km, a top official said on Friday.

The ministry constructed 10,237 km National Highways in 2019-20 financial year, 13,327 km in 2020-21, 10,457 km in 2021-22, and 10,331 km in 2022-23.

The ministry has completed construction of 7,685 km till the end of January 2024.

"We are optimistic of doing 4,500-5,000 km in the remaining two months which will help us to achieve anywhere between 12,000 and 13,000 km in the current financial year.

"This will be the second best achievement," Road Transport and Highways Secretary Anurag Jain told reporters here.

Jain said the current financial year will, however, see the highest ever four-lane roads being constructed and highest ever speed or access controlled highways with capacity augmentation pegged at 9,500 km which will be a record for the ministry.

"Up to January 2024, we have seen a 10 per cent year-on-year growth while the increase in construction of four-lane highways is 16 per cent," he said, adding that the construction of four-lane and above roads now stands at two-and-a-half times the annual achievement of FY'14.

Jain said the ministry is also confident of awarding highway projects worth Rs 10,000 crore by March end.

The NH network increased by 60 per cent from 91,287 km in 2014 to 1,46,145 km in the year 2023, government data showed.

The length of four lanes and above NH increased by 2.5 times from 18,387 km in 2014 to 46,179 km in November 2023, the secretary said.

He said MoRTH will come out with a modified Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) project document in the next few days to attract interest of private companies for investments in the highways sector.