Construction of highways slowed in FY24; focus on road quality, safety: Ministry

Construction of highways slowed in FY24; focus on road quality, safety: Ministry

Construction of highways slowed in FY24; focus on road quality, safety: Ministry BySoumya Chatterjee Jan 10, 2025 01:45 PM IST Share Via Copy Link Minister Nitin Gadkari recently told Parliament that nearly 44% of NH projects across 32 states and Union Territories are facing delays since March 2024.

The pace of construction of national highways dipped sharply in the current financial year and is poised to be the slowest since 2016-17, according to provisional data shared by the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) on Thursday.

Construction work in progress on the Greenfield Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Highway Project in Ludhiana. (HT Photo)

The daily average for FY2023-24 was 33.83km, with 12,349 national highways laid in total. In contrast, only 5,853km of highways were laid until December 2024 in the current fiscal, resulting in a daily construction of 21.28km, a drop of 37% year-on-year.

Highway construction has been progressing steadily under the Narendra Modi-led government, with 34,976km being built in the first five financial years ending 2018-19, followed by 46,464km in the second five financial years ending 2023-24.

A senior official on condition of anonymity said the figures are not surprising as efforts are on to focus more on quality in the current year owing to the increase in number of road accidents and complaints over road engineering and construction quality.

“Over the last few years, we were building at a fast pace and now we have multiple expressways for the first time in the country. A lot of studies have been done, we have our own audits reports too. So, we are trying to improve on safety measures,” the official said.

In line with this, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has started a performance-based rating system for private contractors engaged in building and maintaining national highways. Under this system, contractors scoring less than 70 out of 100 will be declared ‘non-performers’ and will be ineligible to secure new national highway projects until they improve their score.

Recently, Union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari told the Lok Sabha that the number of road accidents on national highways has risen from 1,44,221 in 2018 to 1,51,997 in 2022, with a dip on account of Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021. Further, the minister told Parliament that nearly 44% of national highway projects, each worth at least ₹150 crore, across 32 states and Union Territories are facing delays since March 2024.

On Thursday, MoRTH said that the national highways network has grown by 60%, rising from 91,287km in 2014 to 146,195km at present, while National High-Speed Corridors has increased from 93km in 2014 to 2,474km now.

On the issue of monetisation of assets, under TOT (Toll Operate and Transfer) Model -NHAI has awarded Bundle 16 of 251 km-long stretch on the Hyderabad-Nagpur corridor of NH-44 for ₹6,661 crores for 20 years in 2024-25.