In FY21, the Indian highway network expanded at a daily rate of 37 km, setting a new record. This high more or less continued in the ensuing years, backed by the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) awarding about 12,000 km of national highway projects annually from FY21 through to FY23. But project awarding slowed down to around 8,600 km in FY24 and is expected to have stayed at that level in FY25, observes Aniket Dani, Director – Research, Crisil Intelligence. 

Slower awards and slower execution go hand in hand. “The execution pace of national highways is estimated to have declined by 7-10 per cent in FY25,” says Maulesh Desai, Director, CareEdge Ratings. In FY26, CareEdge Ratings forecasts further decline in the pace of construction owing to execution hurdles and lower awarding in FY24 and FY25, which Desai attributes to the pending cost reassessment of the Bharatmala projects and cabinet approval thereof...