Government prioritises 4-lane e-way construction

The government is expected to revise the method of measuring highway construction in the country from 'road km' to 'lane km' starting from this financial year, with the emphasis now shifting towards constructing more expressways and roads consisting of at least four lanes. For the purpose of comparing with previous data, the details of national highway construction from earlier years will be converted to lane km. The linear length method is employed for gauging the progress of construction and widening of National Highways (NHs). Consequently, both a single kilometre of a six-lane road and a two-lane road are treated as 1km. A source stated, Overall highway construction, as per the current road km norm, is almost at its peak. Now we are focusing on constructing more high-speed roads and expressways. Therefore, proceeding with the current norms will have minimal relevance. Furthermore, it was noted that even the railways measure their laying of tracks and electrification in terms of route km. Last year, there was a significant controversy following the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, which highlighted the very high civil construction cost of the 29-km Dwarka expressway. While the report stated that the average cost per km was Rs 2.51 billion, compared to the Rs 180.2 million per km approved by the government, the highway ministry pointed out that the stretch, including elevated and underground structures, comprised 563 lane km. According to the latest data, NH construction and widening during 2023-24 reached 12,349 km, with 42% (5,193 km) of these being more than four lanes, marking the highest-ever construction of such highway stretches.