Govt targets building 12,000 km of highway network this year: But data shows a different reality

By: Yash Gupte

The construction of highways till September 2022 has been a mere 3,559 km against the target of 12,000 km in the current financial year.

The construction of national highways in India is going at a snail’s pace and mostly the ministry is set to miss the target for the financial year 2022-23.

According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the construction of highways till September 2022 has been a mere 3,559 km against the target of 12,000 km in the current financial year. The ministry has constructed 3,559 km of national highways up to September in FY 2022-23 as compared to 3,824 km constructed up to September 2021-22.

One of the major reasons behind the slowdown in the highway construction is being attributed to country’s prolonged monsoon season. Officials from the ministry and other field experts said that the prolonged monsoon has created a lot of hurdles in the construction. Giridhar Aramane, secretary, ministry of road transport and highways while commenting on the slowdown in the construction activity said that “The construction of new highways has been slow in the first six-month period. The same trend has been seen in the past three years. If we relate the current numbers with same period last year, we have almost reached 90% levels. Construction generally picks up pace in the second half of the year and we are confident of constructing 12,000 km of highways this year."

Aramane’s comments bring hopes about achieving the set target. But let us have a look at the basic mathematics here. The ministry has been able to construct 3,559 km national highways till September 2022. Simplifying this, it means that only 1/4^th of the target has been met in first six months of the FY2022-23 as the target of highway construction in the current financial year is 12,000 km. Now, in order to achieve the target, the ministry has to undertake the completion of remaining 8,441 km till March 2023. This means that 3/4^th of the construction in current financial year is still pending. But according to experts, 50 km of new roads must be built every day in order to accomplish the desired goal. The government has never succeeded in doing this in the past.

The chart below compares the construction of National Highways from April to September in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

There is a slowdown in the construction of national highway in the current financial year as compared to the previous one. Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, had stated in the monsoon session of the Rajya Sabha that India's road infrastructure will be equal to that of the United States by 2024. Citing instances of how the expressways will cut down on travel time, he had said that the travel time between major cities of India will be cut to less than half. But the data shows a different reality as the highway construction in India slows down.