National highways construction pace touches record 34 km/day

The pace of construction of national highways has touched a record 34 km a day, the government said on Monday. This is almost three times the rate of highways construction at about 12 km per day in 2014-15.

"The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has achieved another milestone by constructing 12,205.25 km of National Highways in the current financial year 2020-21 (till 22nd March, 2021), i.e., with construction of 34 kilometres per day," the ministry said in a statement.

This is also 1,205 kms more than the target of 11,000 kms fixed for the current fiscal, it added.


"This achievement is significant as the first few months of the current financial year were lost due to nation-wide lockdown in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Construction activities were badly affected during the period," the statement said.

On March 1, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had announced achieving the target of constructing 11,000 kms of national highways one month ahead of schedule.

The ministry, in the last few years, has taken several initiatives to increase the pace of highway construction in the country.