Will achieve 13,814-km highway construction target this fiscal: Road secy

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is confident of achieving the highways construction target of 13,814 kilometres for the current fiscal, its secretary Anurag Jain said on Friday.

Addressing a press conference, Jain further said the total length of national highways in India increased 60 per cent to 1,46,145 km till December 2023, from 91,287 km in 2014, since the Narendra Modi government came into power.

"The pace of highway construction in 2023-24 so far has been better than last year, and we are confident of achieving the 13,814-km highway construction target during the current fiscal," he said.

Up to December 31, 2023, the ministry has built 6,217 km of national highway, higher than last year's 5,774 km for the same period.

According to him, the government is planning to award 10,000 km of national highway projects in 2023-24.

Jain also said that the government has asked companies to prepare detailed project reports (DPR) for unawarded identified projects to increase the pace of awarding in 2023-24.

He said the total length of four-lanes and above national highways (NHs) increased by 2.5 times to 46,179 km in December 2023 from 18,387 km in 2014.

While the total length of high-speed corridors in 2014 was 353 km, which increased to 3,913 km in 2023, the total length of less than 2-lane national highways decreased from 30 per cent (2014) to 10 per cent of national highway network in 2023.

Jain also said the road ministry has constructed 6,217 km of national highways up to December in 2023-24.

He noted that expenditure on the ministry's highways construction expenditure is expected to increase by 9.4 times to Rs 3.17 lakh crore in 2023 from 2014.

Jain said under the Vehicle Scrapping Policy, 44 registered vehicle scrapping facilities (RVSFs) are operational in India, while concession and motor vehicle tax was announced by 19 states/ Union Territories.

As many as 49,770 vehicles were scrapped till date under the Vehicle Scrapping Policy, he added.

Jain said state-owned NHAI has collected Rs 18,450 crore as toll till December in the current financial year.

The road transport and highways ministry has proposed to build 50,000 km of high speed (access-controlled) corridors by 2047, a senior official said on Friday.

Once completed, the average travel speed of trucks will increase from the current 45 kmph to 75-80 kmph on the National Highway network, Jain said.

According to him, while the total length of high-speed corridors in 2014 was 353 km, which increased to 3,913 km in 2023.

"We have finalised a vision document for the infrastructure sector... In that document, we have proposed to increase the total length of high speed corridors to 50,000 km by 2047," he said.

A vision document is being prepared by NITI Aayog for India to become a developed economy of about $30 trillion by 2047, and it will be released by the Prime Minister by the end of January.

In 2023, the Aayog was entrusted with the task of consolidating the 10 sectoral thematic visions into a combined vision for Viksit Bharat @2047.

He said the awarding of projects would be as per Vision 2047 to improve implementation and minimise overlap.

According to Jain, out of 108 (3,700 km) port connectivity road projects, eight (294 km) are completed, 28 (1,808 km) are awarded and detailed project reports for 72 (1,595 km) projects are under progress.

He said under the Parvatmala Pariyojana, 60-km ropeway projects are planned for award by the end of this fiscal.

Ropeway at Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) of 3.85 km is under construction, Jain said, adding that bids for nine projects of 36 km length have been invited.

Jain said since the launch of Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model in 2018, state-owned NHAI has completed six rounds of the road asset monetisation through TOT mode and raised Rs 26,366 crore.