As Focus Shifts To E-ways, Centre Plans Change In Construction Norm To ‘Lane Km'

The centre is set to shift its approach to measuring highway construction in the country, moving from the 'road km' metric to 'lane km' starting this fiscal year.

This change reflects a heightened emphasis on constructing more expressways and roads with at least four lanes.

Presently, the linear length method gauges the progress of constructing and widening national highways (NHs), treating every kilometre of both a six-lane road and a two-lane road as equivalent to 1 km.

In fact, even railways calculate the laying of tracks and electrification in terms of route km.

“Overall highway construction as per current road km norm is almost at peak. Now we are building more high-speed roads & expressways. Hence, going ahead with the current norms will have little relevance,” reports ET.

In order to maintain data consistency when compared with previous years, the records of national highway construction from earlier periods will be converted into lane kilometres.

Last year, a significant controversy erupted following a report by the CAG, which highlighted the "very high" civil construction cost of the 29-km Dwarka expressway.

The report indicated an average cost per kilometre of Rs 251 crore, compared to the government-approved Rs 18.2 crore per kilometre. In response, the highway ministry emphasised that the stretch, inclusive of elevated and underground structures, was 563 lane km.