More than half the highways sanctioned in FY25 are in NDA allies-ruled states

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₹71,112 crore for 2024-25. Out of this, poll-bound Maharashtra gets the highest amount of ₹19,023 crore. States ruled by all-important NDA allies Andhra Pradesh and Bihar get an allocation of ₹7,266 crore and ₹10,720 crore respectively.

Of the others among India's 28 states, only Uttar Pradesh will get anything like this level of investment, at ₹7,860 crore by the NHAI in FY25. The remainder will have to do with a lot less investment—which means less work on highway development. For category 2 highway development projects, out of a total investment ceiling of ₹73,280 crore for the NHAI this fiscal year, the lion's share has been set aside for Bihar at ₹9,315 crore.

To be sure, other Opposition-ruled states such as Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have also got a higher share of NHAI investments during the year in this category. While Karnataka will get investments of ₹11,963 crore, Tamil Nadu’s share will be ₹9,640 crore and Telangana’s share will be ₹5,650 crore. Out of 79 projects sanctioned for the year, 24 are in just three states – Bihar, AP and Maharashtra.

The total investment under the two schemes is pegged at more than ₹1.4 trillion for FY25. This involves around 79 projects to be taken up by NHAI in the year, including 10 large projects in Bihar, seven in Andhra Pradesh and six in Maharashtra involving construction and upgradation of around 700 km of highways in total. Queries sent to the MoRTH that also administers the activities of NHAI remained unanswered till press time.