The outstanding debt of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has dropped below Rs 2 lakh crore, from a alarming high of Rs 3.42 lakh crore it touched in 2022-23, which led to the highway builder being barred from additional market borrowings.

By April 17 this year, NHAI’s debt dropped to Rs 1.96 lakh crore, following the repayment of Rs 6,057 crore in the first 15 days of the current financial year.

During 2025-26 the NHAI repaid Rs 42,265 crore of loans of which Rs 31,011 crore was prepayment and Rs 11,251 was the repayment of principal. In 2024-25, the agency had repaid Rs 90,635 crore of which Rs. 50,000 crore was the repayment of loans raised from the National Small Savings Fund.

As fresh borrowings were strictly curbed, the government picked up the costs of highway development while creating alternate revenue streams in the form of asset monetisation.

Proceeds from monetisation

Proceeds from the monetisation of highways through infrastructure investment trusts are exclusively used for debt repayment. Since monetisation through InvIT started, NHAI has raised Rs 59,524 crore through that route.

As per the National Monetisation Pipeline 2.0, which will run from FY 26 to FY 30, the highway sector is expected to contribute Rs 4.42 lakh crore of the overall target of Rs 16.72 lakh crore. For FY 27 the monetisation target is Rs 68,700 crore which includes private investment in various highways, ropeway and logistics projects.

The aggressive debt reduction by NHAI has not resulted in any slip in the organisation’s performance.

In 2025-26 the NHAI constructed 5313 km of national highways, which was 15% higher than the target of 4620 km for the year. The achievement last financial year was 5-3% lower than in 2024-25.

The higher than targeted construction in 2025-26 was driven by Rs 2.44 lakh crore capital expenditure, which was 2.5% higher than the budgetary support of Rs 2.38 lakh crore.

The differential amount of Rs 5978 crore was met through NHAI’s own resources. NHAI’s capital expenditure in FY 2024-25 was at an all-time high of approximately Rs. 2.5 lakh crore.

The NHAI’s active construction pipeline currently stands at 27,597 km with a capital cost of Rs. 7.72 lakh crore, of which approximately 13,228 km remains under construction.