The slow pace of awarding of highway projects this financial year would impact the pace of construction in 2024-25 and to remedy this situation speedy approval should be given to the revised Bharatmala Project or an alternate programme drawn up, a senior official said Wednesday.
Against the target of 12,500 km for award for this financial year, in the first seven months 2595 km of highways have been contracted. In the same period of last year the award figure stood at 5007 km.
“Shortfall in award this year will reflect in the progress of construction in FY 2024-25,” according to the official.
Development of 34,800 km length of National Highways is approved under Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-1. National Highway (NH) works of about 27000 km length have been awarded for construction having total capital cost of Rs. 8.5 trillion.
Out of the total about 14,300 km have already been constructed. The projects under Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-1 are targeted for completion by Financial Year 2027-28.
Reports say that a proposal for making Bharatmala more ambitious has been floated by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. They also suggest the Ministry is working on Bharat Mala 2 which would be a Rs 20 trillion 20-year project. It will involve constructing 50,000 km of highways of which 30,000-35,000 km would be fenced-off expressways.
In April-October 4,474 km of national highways were constructed as compared to 4,060 km in the same period last year. For the full year the target for highway construction has been pegged at 13,800 km which is 33% higher than last year.
So far the ministry has spent Rs 1.6 trillion or 64% of its Rs 2.58 trillion allocation for capital expenditure. The ministry is aiming to spend 91% of its allocation on capex by December as in the last quarter activity may slow down due to the general elections.