Highways minister Nitin Gadkari aims 18k km of highways @50km a day

By Our Special Correspondent

The Centre on Thursday said it is committed to expand the national highway and expressway networks across the country with the aim of constructing 18,000 km of highways in the current financial year at a record speed of 50 km per day. Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said the government's overall target is to develop two lakh km of National Highway Network by 2025.The road transport and highways minister emphasised that constructing world class road infrastructure in a time bound and target oriented way is essential.

"Ambitious targets to fulfil the ambitions of New India! Under the leadership of PM Shri #NarendraModi ji we are committed to expanding the NH network across the country with the aim of constructing 18,000 km of NHs in 2022-23 at a record speed of 50km per day," he said in a tweet.

India's national highway construction slowed to 28.64 km a day in 2021-22 due to the COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions and a longer-than-usual monsoon in some parts of the country. At one point of time the pace of national highway (NH) construction in the country had touched a record 37 km per day in 2020-21. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) are primarily responsible for the construction of national highways and expressways across the country.

Gadkari also informed that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is building over 1.47 lakh km of roads in the country. "The NHAI is also building 22 green highways and by the end of 2024, we want to expand our road network matching with the US," Gadkari stated.