Road Ministry hopes to construct over 12,000 km of roads in FY24

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways expects to construct anywhere between 12,000 and 13,000 km of national highways in 2023-24, which will be the second highest national highways construction in the country. The highest annual construction so far has been 13,327 km in 2020-21 while the second highest was 10,855 km in 2018-19. The ministry completed construction of 7,685 km till the end of January 2024. It had set a construction target of 13,814 km for FY ’24.Anurag Jain, Secretary, Road Transport and Highways, said that doing 4500-5000 km in the remaining two months will help achieve anywhere between 12,000 and 13,000 km in the current financial year, which will be the second best achievement. According to Jain, the current FY will see highest-ever four-lane roads being constructed and highest-ever speed highways with capacity augmentation pegged at 9,500 km. In a related development, as per Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), projects worth Rs.1.5 billion, out of 1,821 projects, 431 reported cost overruns and 780 projects were delayed.