H1 sees national highway construction at 20.23 km/day

The pace of national highway construction in India had dropped to 15.6 km a day in the second quarter of 2023-24 from 23.63 km a day in the first quarter of FY24 due to heavy rainfall and elections in some states.

They stated that on average, 20.23 km a day of highways were built in the six months ended September, compared with 21 km a day in the five-month period ended August.

It was revealed that the National Highways Authority of India, the agency responsible for developing, maintaining, and managing national highways, and the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways collaborated to construct 506 km of national highways in September. This was a decrease from the 526 km constructed in August and the 420 km built in July. As of September 30, the ministry's capital expenditure was Rs 1.23 trillion, which was lower than the government?s estimate of Rs 1.8 lakh crore.

Despite the sequential decrease in the quarterly pace of road construction, with 3,702 km built in H1, it remained higher than the 3,559 km constructed in the first six months of FY23. In FY22, approximately 3,824 km of national highways were constructed in the first six months.

The government had planned to spend 90% of its budgetary allocation of Rs 2.58 trillion by December, but due to heavy rains and elections in some states, the construction progress was hindered. By the end of the first quarter, the ministry had spent Rs 992.73 billion, and by July-end, it had managed to utilize Rs 1.01 trillion, which increased to Rs 1.12 trillion by August 31.