Nitin Gadkari inaugurates national highway projects worth Rs 3670 crore in Maharashtra: A look at national highway construction in the country

By: Yash Gupte

According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the projects are expected to improve the connectivity of Maharashtra’s Marathwada region with Karnataka and Telangana.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated and laid foundation stone for 5 National Highway projects of 212 km length at Nanded worth Rs. 1,575 Crore, 3 National Highway projects worth Rs 1,058 crore and 75 km length at Parbhani, and National Highway project worth Rs 1,037.4 crore at Hingoli in Maharashtra. According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the projects are expected to improve the connectivity of Maharashtra’s Marathwada region with Karnataka and Telangana. Along with connecting religious places and promoting tourism, the projects are expected to help in improving industrial and agricultural development.

Considering the inauguration and laying foundation stones for National Highways projects worth Rs. 3,670 crore in Maharashtra by Nitin Gadkari, India Tracker takes a look at the construction of national highways in the country.

According to official data, the nation's national highway construction rate slowed to 20.99 kilometers per day during the first nine months of the current fiscal year. In 2020–21, the nation's national highway (NH) construction rate had reached a record high of 37 kilometers per day. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) are primarily responsible for the construction of national highways and expressways in India.

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 in 2022 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 percent 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 6,803 km national highways till January 2023. Simplifying this, it means that only half of the target has been met in first ten 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 5,197 km till March 2023. This means that around half 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 January 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. He reiterated his statement recently at the 95^th annual convention of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI). He said that “We are making the world standard road infrastructure in the country and promising you that before the end of 2024, India’s road infrastructure will be equal to the standard of the USA.” But the data shows a different reality as the highway construction in India slows down. Also, the data clearly suggests that the central government is set to miss its target of constructing 12,000 km of national highways in the country.

Though the highway construction in India has witnessed a slowdown, the sincere efforts taken by the government in constriction of highways and expressways across the country cannot be ignored.