Highway projects worth Rs 5 trillion to be awarded over two years

The central government has set an ambitious target of awarding highway contracts worth Rs 5 trillion and totalling about 50,000 km, in the next two years. As per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), these contracts will cover 44 economic corridors and 10 expressways, including the Char Dham connectivity programme, the Northeast connectivity programme and the border-linking projects. Meanwhile, the government has managed to award only 40,000 km of fresh highway length for construction in the past five years. Most of these projects are planned for implementation under the hybrid annuity model. Further, of the 50,000 km, paving work on 30,000 km of highways will start in the next two years. In this fiscal year, the government is targeting the construction of almost 15,000 km of highways, which is 45 per cent more than that achieved in 2016-17. In the past three years, while the ministry has awarded contracts for over 34,000 km of roads, only about 22,000 km has actually been constructed..