The government has set a provisional target of constructing 10,421 km of national highways this financial year, which is 15% lower than what was achieved last year as the election process slowed down the various clearances in the states, minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said Thursday.
The ministry has constructed 1,934 km of highways during April-June of this financial year as compared to 2,250 km during the same period last year.
“The preoccupation of district authorities in all states with the general election 2024 has impacted to some extent the resolution of hindrances and affected the pace of construction. However, the Ministry is making all efforts to maximise the pace of construction,” Gadkari said in reply to a question in Lok Sabha.
Of the total target National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been given a target of 5,000 km while the remaining will be done by National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) and road wing of the ministry.
Due to elections pace of awarding of new highway projects has gone down to just 95 km in the April-June quarter down from 611 km in April-June 2023-24. The pace of awarding has been coming down since the finance ministry has asked for a pause on taking on new liabilities under the flagship Bharatmala project in October last year. Last financial year 8581 km of highway projects were awarded as against the target of 13,290 km.
According to experts the slowdown in awarding of new projects will start impacting the pace of construction. In April-June the capital expenditure of the ministry stood at Rs 60,461 crore as against Rs 99,273 crore spent in the same period of last year. For 2024-25 the capital expenditure target of the ministry is Rs 2.72 trillion which is just 2.9% higher than last year.
On the debt situation of NHAI, Gadkari said the total debt of the highway construction agency has gone down to Rs 3.35 trillion by March-end of this year from Rs 3.42 trillion by the end of 2022-23.
“NHAI has drawn up a plan to service its debt through improved inflows of toll revenue and asset monetization. The amount raised through InvIT mode is used exclusively for debt repayment,” he said.
NHAI has pre-paid bank loans to the tune of Rs 15,700 Crore through InvIT monetization proceeds raised last year. Around Rs 6,350 crore was paid back last financial year and Rs 9,350 Crore this month. For this year monetisation target through InVIT is Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore.