As per the Economic Survey, since 2013-14, there has been a consistent increase in the construction of NHs/roads with 13,327 kilometres constructed in the year 2020-21 as compared to 10,237 kilometres in 2019-20.
On Sunday, Union Road Transport and Highways Secretary Giridhar Aramane said the road construction’s pace will be further increased to achieve the national highways’ expansion target in the next financial year. In the ongoing fiscal, the NHAI and the NHIDCL, so far, have constructed 7,500 kilometres of national highways, and at least 2,500 kilometres of highway construction is expected in the remaining two months. Aramane was quoted saying in the PTI report that the Budget for 2022-23 is development-oriented. According to him, the large focus on infrastructure development in the Budget is going to help India reap the dividends in the coming decades.
While presenting the Budget for 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said NHs will be expanded by 25,000 kilometres during the fiscal 2022-23. According to the Secretary, the construction target of 25,000 kilometres of NHs in the next fiscal year will be met under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, under which the Centre will have to provide connectivity to all the economic nodes in India. The government will increase the construction pace of highways. The existing NHs will be made into bigger, stronger ones and also, new ones to reach these economic nodes. So together, it will be 25,000 kilometres, he said. As per the Economic Survey, since 2013-14, there has been a consistent increase in the construction of NHs/roads with 13,327 kilometres constructed in the year 2020-21 as compared to 10,237 kilometres in 2019-20. The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has targeted to construct 12,000 kilometres NHs in the current fiscal.
According to Aramane, the development of infrastructure has been made cheaper by pumping in resources and also, the large focus on PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan is going to help faster execution of infra projects. While there are 810 economic nodes, 730 of them are already connected in one way or the other, he pointed out. There’s a need to provide multiple connectivities to economic centres such as Mumbai, Delhi, Nasik or Varanasi and places where a large number of commuters are present, large segments of goods, transport originate, as well as find its destination, Aramane said.
While replying to a question on NHAI’s rising debt, which is primarily responsible for the development of NHs and expressways, he said the main feature of the Union Budget for 2022-23 is extraordinary allocations to the infra sector. In fact, the Ministry of road transport and highways has been given a very big sum of Rs 1.99 lakh crore for the construction of highways as well as for the transport sector’s improvement, the Secretary noted. So from NHAI, that will take off some debt servicing burden, he added. Additionally, he also pointed out that the roads, which NHAI is developing, will give the toll revenue in the coming years.
