Road awards totalling ₹3 trillion for 10K km soon

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : The government plans to award ₹3 trillion worth of road projects over the next six months in the run-up to next year’s general elections, aiming to build 10,000 km of roads. This would be one of the biggest road project awards in any given six-month period, with the ministry of road transport and highways aiming to complete 12,500 km highway awards by the end of FY24, higher than the previous few years, two persons aware of the development said. They added that more projects are being awarded in the second half of this year as the government agencies responsible for construction have finalized new stretches for bidding.

The government has ensured that all pending issues of land acquisition are resolved before any project is put out for bidding. “Suddenly, from a squeeze in the project pipeline a few months back, there is a situation where more and more projects are ready for bidding. This should give a push to highway construction and awards that have remained a bit slow for past two-and-a-half years," said one of the two persons quoted earlier.

Highway construction has remained in the slow lane, even though the government pushed for completing record construction in FY24 to show progress ahead of the 2024 elections. In the first five months of the current fiscal, MoRTH has built only 3,196 km of highways out of a target of 13,800 km for the entire year—which would be a record if completed. The award figure in the April-August period is even lower at 1,756 km, less than even last year’s 2,706 km.