Rating agency Crisil expects construction of national highways would average 32-34 km per day, while project awards is estimated to be around 12,000-13,000 km in FY23.
At a daily average of 29 km, all executing agencies including National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) constructed 10,457 km highway last fiscal, mainly due to an extended and uneven monsoon and lower awarding of projects earlier. At an average of 36.5 km, per day construction was the highest in FY21.
However, primarily due to a surge in input prices that led to developers delaying procurement of materials, highways construction slowed in the fist quarter of the current fiscal to just 22 km a day, down 14% on year. Awards fell by 42% on year to 969 km.
“Against this backdrop, awarding would need to scale up significantly in the next nine months to achieve the ministry’s ambitious target of constructing 50 km per day. The outlook, though, remains positive. Project awarding had touched a high of 12,731 km last year. This fiscal, Crisil estimates the ministry to award 12,000-13,000 km of national highway projects, largely under Bharatmala,” it said.
The pace of construction, it said, is expected to pick up post monsoon. “However, it will still manage to reach only 32- 34 km per day this fiscal as input prices are expected to remain elevated,” Crisil said.