In line with the government’s plan to push capital spending on infrastructure right from the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has spent 38.3% of its allocation for this year on the creation of assets in the first quarter itself.
“Of the total gross budgetary support of Rs 2.58 trillion for capital spending, the ministry has already spent Rs 99,273 crore till the end of June,” the ministry’s data showed.
This figure is slightly lower than the ministry’s target of spending Rs 1.02 trillion in April-June. It has planned to spend 91% of its capital allocation for the year by December.
This targeted pace of spending this financial year is much higher than last year when only 87% of the allocation of Rs 2.06 trillion capital expenditure allocation in revised estimates could be used till the end of January. In the remaining two months of February and March, the spending by the ministry picked up and it managed to touch Rs 2.05 trillion.
This capital spending in April-June of this year is 23% more than what was achieved in the previous year. In the first quarter of last year, the ministry had spent Rs 80,716 crore out of its budget allocation of Rs 1.87 trillion. Later, the allocation of the ministry was revised upwards to Rs 2.17 trillion.
In the first quarter, 2,250 km of national highways have been built as against 1,966 km built in the same period of 2022-23. During this period, the ministry awarded concessions for building 611 km of highways, which is lower than 969 km awarded last year.
The ministry had initially targeted building 12,500 km of highways this year but is now working on revising them upwards to 14,000 km.
The targets for National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) may be raised to 6,000 km. The roads wing of the ministry may chip in with another 6,000 km while National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) will do around 1,500-2,000 km.
The NHIDL is tasked with the construction and upgradation in parts of the country, which share international boundaries with neighbouring countries.
The roads wing of the ministry executes projects related to expressways, six laning of crowded stretches of the golden quadrilateral and two laning of highways under the National Highway Development Projects. It also works on a special programme of the development of road connectivity in naxalite-affected areas and providing the last mile connectivity.