Highway construction has already exceeded the current fiscal year’s target of 11,000 km (30 km/day), itself a record, and is poised to touch 40 km/day by the end of the year, minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday. The minister’s comments came at a time when investor interest in pure public-private partnership (PPP) projects is showing a nascent recovery. The remarkably brisk pace of highway building this year has been despite the pandemic that brought the activities to a halt in April and very low levels of construction in subsequent couple of months.
“In 2020-21, the ministry of road transport and highways has constructed 12,205 km of national highway between April and now. The rate of construction is 34 km/day. I am confident that by the end of March, we will reach 40 km/day,” Gadkari said at an event organsied by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
