NEW DELHI: Government has set a target to construct 10,000 km of national highways (NHs) in 2025-26, as per the budget document, which is the lowest in the past seven years since 2018-19. However, continuing with the sharper focus on building wider and greenfield highways and expressways, the road transport and highways ministry has set a target for all high speed corridors to touch 5,800 km in the next one year.
The ministry uploaded the detailed budget document on Monday.
The details of highway construction since 2018-19 shows that the lowest was at 10,237 km in 2019-20 and the highest was 13,327 km in 2020-21 despite the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. During the last financial year, the overall NH construction stood at 12,349 km. Officials said that by March this year, the ministry is hopeful of achieving around 10,500 km.
By mid-February, all agencies constructed around 8,000 km of NHs. Sources said though the target for FY26 may be revised at a later stage, the pace will remain less since now there are less number of highway projects that are under implementation. Slow pace of award of new projects in 2023-24 and the current financial year will impact the construction in the next two financial years.
As per the detailed budget document, the ministry has set the target to raise around Rs 30,000 crore from monetisation of completed highway projects and getting around Rs 35,000 crore private investment.
The govt has also earmarked Rs 128 crore for the implementation of cashless treatment to road crash victims across all states and UTs. At present, the scheme has been rolled out in Assam, Chandigarh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Puducherry. The road transport ministry has set a target to remove 1,000 ‘black spots’ on NHs and carry out road safety audits of 40,000 km of highways.