NHAI Achieves Highest Ever Construction of National Highways in FY 2019-20

NHAI has accomplished construction of 3,979 km of national highways in the financial Year 2019-20. This is the highest ever highway construction achieved in a financial year by NHAI. The construction pace as noticed in last years has seen a steady growth with 3,380 Km construction in the FY 2018-19. Continuing the same trend with the development of 3,979 km of national highways during FY 2019-20, NHAI has achieved an all-time high construction since its inception in 1995.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has envisaged an ambitious highway development programme Bharatmala Pariyojana which includes development of about 65,000 km national highways. Under Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana, the Ministry has approved implementation of 34,800 km of national highways in 5 years with an outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crore (US$ 76.55 billion). NHAI has been mandated development of about 27,500 km of national highways under Bharatmal Pariyojna Phase-I.

In order to accelerate the pace of construction, large no. of initiatives have been taken to revive the stalled projects and expedite completion of new projects:

• Streamlining of land acquisition and acquisition of major portion of land prior to invitation of bids.
• Award of projects after adequate project preparation in terms of land acquisition, clearances etc.
• Disposal of cases in respect of Change of Scope (CoS) and Extension of Time (EoT) in a time bound manner
• Procedure for approval of General Arrangement Drawing for ROBs simplified and made online.
• Close coordination with other Ministries and State Governments One-time fund infusion
• Regular review at various levels and identification/ removal of bottlenecks in project execution
• Proposed exit for Equity Investors Securitization of road sector loans
• Disputes Resolution mechanism revamped to avoid delays in completion of projects.

Source: IBEF

Image Courtesy: JustDial