Road Ministry To Construct 2,500 Km Of Highways In FY24: Official

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has put plans in place to maintain the pace of highway development and construct  12,500 km of highways in the current financial year, a senior official on Wednesday said. Alka Upadhyaya, Secretary, MoRTH, said Rs 10,000 crore is planned to be raised through Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) mode in FY 2023-24.

"MoRTH has put plans in place to maintain the pace of highway development, with a strong pipeline of projects across the country. "For 2023-24, MoRTH has taken up targets to award 12,000 km and construct 12,500 km of highways in the country," she told PTI. The road transport and highways ministry is yet to declare data on the construction and award of highway projects for 2022-23. The ministry has constructed 10,237 kilometres in 2019-20, 13,327 kilometres in 2020-21 and 10,457 kilometres in 2021-22.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) are primarily responsible for the construction of national highways and expressways in India. Asked whether the government would raise more money via the InviT route, Upadhyaya said MoRTH has leveraged various innovative ways of funding its infrastructure projects by involving the private sector in highway construction. 

"Till February 28, 2023, Rs 10,200 crore has been raised through InvIT in two phases, for a total length of 635 km, while InvIT III is planned to be awarded in April 2023 for a total of Rs 10,000 crore. "Additionally, Rs 10,000 crore is planned to be raised through InvIT mode in FY 2023-24," she said. Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) is an instrument on the pattern of mutual funds, designed to pool money from investors and invest in assets that will provide cash flows over a period of time.

Currently, MoRTH monetises its assets under three different modes viz toll-operate-transfer (TOT) model, InvIT and project-based financing, in order to provide all categories of investors an opportunity to invest in assets pertaining to highways and associated infrastructure.

Asked if MoRTH is planning to issue guidelines for signage and road marking to deal with blatant violations of lane driving, she said the ministry has already started piloting signage and road marking in line with best-in-class signage standards in the world on greenfield highway corridors.

While pointing out that signages and road markings being installed in the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway are in line with the global best practices, Upadhyaya said that an extensive exercise was carried out to finalise the standards for signages and road marking on Delhi-Mumbai Expressway based on global best-in-class practices."Going forward, MoRTH plans to adopt these standards in all high-speed corridors to start with, (and) subsequently on all national highway corridors," she said.