Modi Government’s New Landmark: Completion of 534 Kms Long National Highway in One Week

By: Ashwathy Nair

Construction in a week with a speed of around 28.16 kilometres per day.
National highway projects of 7,597 kilometres were also awarded by the ministry.
In a bid to increase highway construction’s pace, Road Transport & Highway Minister took several initiatives.

The government of Modi creates a new landmark by constructing National Highways of 534 kilometres. In the past week, Nitin Gadkari, chairman of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, sets a record by constructing 534 kilometres of national highways, which began on 8 January 2021.

As per the details provided by the ministry, In the current financial year 2020-21, the Road Transport and Highway Ministry has successfully constructed 8,169 kilometres of National Highways with a speed of around 28.16 kilometres per day from April 2020 to 15^th January 2021. A total of 7,573-kilometre roads were successfully constructed with a speed of 26.11 kilometres per day, during the same period of time in the last financial year.

Hopefully, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry are expecting that with such a pace, it possibly should be able to cross the target of 11,000 kilometres of road construction by 31^st March. The ministry also awarded National Highway projects of 7,597 kilometres during this period of April 2020 to 15 January 2021. Projects of 3,474 kilometres were awarded over the same time in the 2019-20 financial year. Thus, the speed of awards has also more than doubled in this fiscal year, the ministry said. In the 2019-20 financial year, a total of 8,948 kilometres of roads were awarded to projects, while 10,237 kilometres of roads were built.

As per the ministry, In view of the fact that the first two months of the current financial year were lost due to the national lockdown in the aftermath of the latest coronavirus outbreak, the achievement of the National Highways construction record assumes significance. In an attempt to increase the speed of highway construction, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has taken many initiatives.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways added that “the speed of construction of national highways across the country is expected to increase further in the remaining months of the current 2020-21 financial year, which will be conducive to construction activities.”