The pace of National Highways construction in India slowed to 29 km/day in the last fiscal, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, said the pace of National Highways construction during 2023-24 stood at 34 km/day. The highest-ever pace was recorded in 2020-21, when it reached 37 km per day.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is primarily responsible for development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs), including National Expressways.
Gadkari said all the NHs development projects, including development of access-controlled High Speed Corridors (HSC) / Expressways, are planned in line with PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) Principles.
"The government has constructed 10,660 km of NHs during the last Financial Year 2024-25. Projects in 26,425 km have been awarded under Bharatmala Pariyojana, out of which 20,770 km have been constructed so far, including 2,967 km constructed during FY 2024-25," he said.
The minister said that the government has decided to focus on the development of greenfield access-controlled HSCs / expressways for improving the logistics efficiency of the country.
Accordingly, he said 26 greenfield corridors in about 7,500 km have been awarded and, additionally, about 600 km has already been approved.
"Out of this, about 4,800 km has been constructed so far. Total 2,636 km length has already been operationalised," he said, adding that the remaining sections are planned to be operationalised in a phased manner in the next two years.
He said the PM GatiShakti NMP portal depicts the economic zones and the infrastructure linkages required to support them with an objective to holistically integrate all the multimodal connectivity projects. This also facilitates identifying the missing gaps for seamless movement of people, goods & services for proper connectivity.
Source Name : Economic Times