The highway construction target for the current financial year will be set at 10,000 km, the same as the orginal goal for the current year, according to official sources.
In 2025-26, against the target of 10,000 km, only 8600 km of highways were built by the third week of March. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) alone constructed 5313 km of highways in 2025-26 which was 15% higher than the target of 4620 km for the year. The other agencies involved in highway building fell short of their respective targets.
The slower pace last financial year was largely due to agencies making sure that at least 90% of land is available for the project before bidding them out. They are also ensuring that the forest clearance, environment clearance, railway clearance and approval for dealing with other structures is available.
The awarding without taking full possession of land and other clearances earlier has led to 653 under construction national highways projects with cumulative project cost of about Rs 4.24 lakh crore missing their original completion deadline. Of which, 316 projects are facing delay of less than 1 year, 252 projects of 1-3 years and 85 project of more than 3 years
Focus on High-Speed Corridors
Another reason for construction being lower than the target last FY was shifting focus towards development of more complex Greenfield and access-controlled corridor. The target for operational High Speed Corridors is 6,000 km by the end of 2026-27, requiring 2,300 km to become operational this FY from a current base of 3,700 km. Around 9,500 km of high speed corridors have either been approved or commenced.
This focus is part of a broader objective to operationalise 18,000 km of Access-Controlled National High-Speed Corridors by 2028-29 and to award 26,000 km by 2032-33. This would require the pace of 4,800 km of expressways per year.
Since June 2024, the government has approved 30 highway projects with an outlay of Rs 2.54 lakh crore majority of which are high speed access controlled corridors.