NHAI Plans For Record Highway Construction, To Award Projects Worth Rs 2.25 Lakh Crore In 2021-22

From 141 projects (4,788 km) worth Rs 1.71 lakh crore in 2020-21, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to increase the awarded projects to around Rs 2.25 lakh crore in the current fiscal.

Sources said to Financial Express that project awards in the current fiscal could be close to 5,000 km and hybrid annuity model (HAM) is expected to have the largest share of awards followed by engineering procurement and construction (EPC).

“Funds are not a constraint for project awards. We will be exceeding our last year’s achievement in the current fiscal,” said NHAI chairman Dr SS Sandhu.

NHAI has also mandated the development of about 27,500 km of national highways under Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana.

Bharatmala Pariyojana is an umbrella program for the highways sector envisaged by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

A total of 322 projects in a length of 12,413 km have been awarded and 2921 km has been constructed under Bharatmala Pariyojana till August 2020.

It is also noteworthy that in the year 2020-21, the Modi government has achieved record-breaking milestone of constructing 37 kilometres highways per day which is unprecedented.

Other achievements of the ministry include an increase in the length of national highways over the last seven years from 91,287 km (as of April 2014) to 1,37,625 km (as on 20 March 2021).

Also the total budgetary outlay increased by 5.5 times, from Rs 33,414 crore in Financial Year 2015 to Rs 1,83,101 crore in Financial Year 2022.