Highway construction pace increases to 27 km daily

Having done average daily highway construction of 27 km in 2017-18, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) will change its calculation method to achieve its 41 km/ day target.

According to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, over 9,829 km of National Highways were constructed during the fiscal 2017-18. This is 20% growth over the last year figures, when 8,231 km were constructed. 

During 2017-18, a total of 17,055 km of road length was awarded as against 15,948 km previous fiscal. While total expenditure of Rs 1,16,324 crore was incurred to construct these 9,829 km of National Highways during the year 2017-18.

Ever since the Modi government has taken charge, Gadkari kept a target of 41-km as daily highway construction. However, in the last four years it hasn’t met even three-fourth of the construction target. Last year, the average daily construction achieved was 22.50 km.

In 2017-18, due to roll-out of Goods and Services Tax the average daily construction had slowed down at around 23 km. As expected, the construction pace picked up during the fourth quarter as there was no impact of rains or other policy decisions. In January, DNA Money had reported that by the end of FY18, the overall construction pace is likely to be around 26-27 km/ day.

While stating that new calculation methodology will be adopted, Gadkari said, that calculation system is an internationally accepted and practised. Under the new method, lane kilometres constructed will be taken into account instead of just the linear length that is being considered at the moment.