Top 10 states account for 80% of under-constructed highway projects, says reports

KOLKATA: Highway construction activity which came to grinding halt with imposition of nation wide lockdown on March 25 and was allowed to resume in April, remains stalled due to severe shortage of labour and raw material, and difficulty in securing requisite clearances, a report by CRISIL Research has said.

The Centre has divided districts into red, orange and green zones based on the extent of coronavirus contagion. Only insitu construction is allowed in red zones until the next announcement, the report said.

CRISIL Research’s analysis of over 270 under-construction national highways indicates the Top 10 states account for 80% of the projects. Projects are most at risk in four of these states – Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh – that account for over a third of the projects.


"In Maharashtra, which has 11% of the national highway projects, as much as 55% of it is in red zones," it said. In Uttar Pradesh, which has the lion’s share of projects under construction at 15%, a third is in the red zones. "Projects in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, each with over 35% projects in red zones, are also at risk," the report added.

In the milieu, for developers, containment of the pandemic and lifting of the extended lockdown are the key monitorables for a return to normalcy