India records construction of 534 kilometres National Highways in one week

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has created a record by constructing 534 kilometres of National Highways in the last week commencing 8 January 2021.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has constructed 8,169 km of National Highways from April 2020 to 15 January 2021 in the current financial year 2020-21, i.e. with a speed of about 28.16 km per day. During the same period in the last fiscal, 7,573 km roads were constructed, with a speed of 26.11 km per day.

The Road Transport & Highways Ministry is hopeful that with such pace it should be able to cross the construction target of 11,000 km by 31 March 2021.

The Ministry also awarded National Highway projects of 7,597 km during this period (April 2020 to 15 January 2021). In 2019-20, projects of 3,474 km were awarded during the same period. Thus, the pace of award has also more than doubled this fiscal.

In total, projects of 8,948 km of roads were awarded in 2019-20 while 10,237 km of roads were constructed.

The achievement assumes significance given the fact that the first two months of the current fiscal were lost due to nationwide lockdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry has taken several initiatives to increase the pace of construction. The pace of construction is expected to increase further in the remaining months of the current financial year, which are conducive for construction activities.