National Highway Construction Set To Cross Record 6,000 Km This Fiscal

Construction of national highways is set to touch the maximum distance covered in a year. Work during the current fiscal is estimated to cross 6,000 km, surpassing the previous best — 5,700 km completed in 2012-13 during UPA-II.

Though road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari needs to wait some more time to achieve his ambitious target of building 30 km of highways daily, in less than two years since the Modi government assumed office, the average daily construction is set to touch at least 17 km against 16 km earlier.

Ministry data shows an uptick in the pace of awarding contracts and construction as well till December 2015 in comparison to the corresponding period in 2014-15. Total construction between April and December, 2015 was about 1,500 km more than the corresponding period in 2014 — the first year of the NDA government. Similarly, the increase in awarding highway projects came to 1,900 km during April-December, 2015.

"The pace of building roads is the maximum during last quarter of every financial year. The weather is best for construction across the country except in some parts of the hilly regions impacted by snowfall. Even monitoring is stepped up to meet the target," said a highway ministry official, explaining the push to improve performance.

During January-March 2015, construction almost doubled to 1,500 km against the average of about 800 km a quarter in the previous three.

Officials said the real jump in construction should be visible over the next two years. The government hopes to touch the 30-km-a-day target by 2019. "This is because the sharp increase in award of works since June 2014 will result in completion of these stretches in two-three years. Due to positive decisions, including bringing in more public investment in road projects and doing away with irritants in contract norms, award of projects has increased manifold," said an official.

According to ministry data, the award of works had fallen to 1,961 km during 2012-13 before an uptick in 2013-14. But during the last fiscal, the pace of award of projects rose to around 8,000 km and the ministry expects to hit the 10,000 km this financial year.

The ministry is also in the process of putting in place a web-based system called "e-pace" for real time monitoring of all projects since their inception to accelerate roll out and timely completion.

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