4-fold increase in fund allocation for highway development in 8 years – Times of India
[ad_1]
NEW DELHI: The government has made a more than 4-fold increase in fund allocation for development of national highways in eight years. From Rs 24,700 crore in 2014-15, the allocation has increased to Rs 1.17 lakh crore in 2021-22, an increase of 448%.
The road transport and highways ministry told Lok Sabha last week that the annual average construction of NH in the past seven years was 9,000 km and on an average, works were awarded for widening and construction of 10,781 km of NHs. It said 41 projects costing around Rs 26,500 crore have been delayed due to several reasons, including non-availability of land and financial inability of contractors. The data also shows that the highways ministry resumed notifying NHs after putting a brief break in 2019-20. In fact, in the past 10 years, declaration of NHs touched the lowest in 2019-20 when barely 495 km of state roads were converted to NHs. But in 2020-21, it increased to 5,381 km.
The conversion of state roads to NHs has always been seen as a political achievement, both by the Centre and states. The data accessed since 2011-12 shows that the maximum length of 13,085 km of state roads were notified as NHs in 2016-17 and another 12,503 km was added to the NH network in 2017-18. In the subsequent two years, this fell to 6,174 km and 495 km.
The road transport and highways ministry told Lok Sabha last week that the annual average construction of NH in the past seven years was 9,000 km and on an average, works were awarded for widening and construction of 10,781 km of NHs. It said 41 projects costing around Rs 26,500 crore have been delayed due to several reasons, including non-availability of land and financial inability of contractors. The data also shows that the highways ministry resumed notifying NHs after putting a brief break in 2019-20. In fact, in the past 10 years, declaration of NHs touched the lowest in 2019-20 when barely 495 km of state roads were converted to NHs. But in 2020-21, it increased to 5,381 km.
The conversion of state roads to NHs has always been seen as a political achievement, both by the Centre and states. The data accessed since 2011-12 shows that the maximum length of 13,085 km of state roads were notified as NHs in 2016-17 and another 12,503 km was added to the NH network in 2017-18. In the subsequent two years, this fell to 6,174 km and 495 km.
[ad_2]
Source link
