NEW DELHI: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday announced an ambitious target of constructing 18,000 km of national highways in the ongoing fiscal by paving roads at a record speed of 50 km per day.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is looking to develop two lakh km of highways in the next three years as the aim is to expand the network of trunk roads for facilitating inter-state movement of passengers and goods across the country, he said.
“Ambitious targets to fulfil the ambitions of New India! Under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi ji, we are committed to expanding the NH network across the country with the aim of constructing 18,000 km of NHs in 2022-23 at a record speed of 50km per day,” the Union minister tweeted.
The road transport and highways minister emphasised that construction of world class road infrastructure in a time bound and target oriented way is essential. Gadkari went on to compare it as the ‘Atma’ (soul) of an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (a self-reliant India).
At present, India has approximately 1.40 lakh km of national highways, including expressways. While highways or expressways constitute only about 1.7 per cent of the length of all roads, they account for about 40 per cent of the road traffic.
While the ministry had earlier set a record of constructing 37 km per day during 2020-21, the waves of Covid pandemic had slowed down the progress and approximately 26 km of road were being built per day.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) are primarily responsible for the construction of national highways and expressways across the country.
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