The ministry constructed 12,349 km of national highways in 2023-24, the second highest so far, compared to 10,331 km in 2022-23 while the projects awarded in 2023-24 stood at 8,581 km. The highest construction so far has been 13,327 km done during 2020-21.
According to the official, the ministry achieved the capex of 99.93% of the Rs 2,64,526 crore allocated in the last financial year, the highest in any year, compared to 99.18% in 2022-23.
Even the asset monetisation receipts of the ministry were highest in the just concluded financial year at Rs 38,334 crore vis-a-vis Rs 23,336 crore in 2022-23.
However, ministry data shows that the projects awarded and constructed fell short of their initial targets. While the award target set by the ministry was 13,290 km, the construction target was 13,814 km.
As per the ministry, the national highways length in India increased 1.6 times to 1,46,145 km in 2024 compared to 91,287 km in 2014 with the length of four-lane and above highways going up by 2.5 times while highways of two-land and below were reduced by 50%. Further, the pace of project award went up by 2.8 times from the average of 4,000 km from 2004-14 to 11,000 km from 2014-24 while the pace of construction was up by 2.3 times to 9,600 km during 2014-24 as compared to 4,200 km during 2004-14.