National Highways Length Rises by 50% in 7 Years

Aug 9

As per government sources, the length of national highways has risen by more than 50% in over seven years. While the total length of national highways was 91,287 km in April 2014, it was around 1,41,000 km by the end of 2021.

The pace of construction of the national highways has increased from 12 km per day to 37 km per day in 2020-21, sources said. This focus on connectivity can be gauged from the budgetary allocation of ₹ 1.99 lakh crore to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in the 2022-23 budget. This is the highest ever, they said, noting that it marks a multifold jump compared to the allocation of about `30,300 crore in 2013-14.

For New Projects, NHAI Back to Build-Operate-Transfer Model

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to award 500 km or around 8% of the 6,500 km target for the current fiscal through the build-operate-transfer (BOT) mode. It may give minimum toll revenue guarantee to make it easier for contractors to bid for BOT projects.

In last five years, BOT share in NHAI’s award mix had never been more than 3%. In two years – 2018-19 and 2019-20 – not a single project was awarded through the BOT mode, according to Crisil. Last fiscal, only 1% of the 6,306 km project was awarded through the BOT mode.

Mumbai Coastal Road Project 58% Ready, to be Operational by November’23

The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has announced that 58% of the ₹ 12,000-crore showpiece Mumbai Coastal Road (MCR) project on the south side has been completed and it will be operational by November 2023.

Of the total 111 hectares land required for the project, 107 hectares or 97% land has been reclaimed from the Arabian Sea, and 70% of the work on the sea-wall is also completed.

From the total reclaimed land, 70 hectares shall be utilised for creating public spaces and amenities, 26.50 hectares will go for building the inter-changes on the project and 14.50 hectares for building a sea-wall to protect the coastal road from the lashing sea-waves.w