Will award projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore by FY21, Covid has made us more aggressive: NHAI Chairman

Hit hard by the pandemic and the lockdown, the highways construction sector is back in business, racing to achieve its targets as the government identifies infrastructure works like building roads, as one of the areas for post-Covid recovery of the economy. The National Highways Authority of India, at the forefront of that exercise, courted controversy recently when Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari took a dig at it publicly for taking 12 years to construct its own office building. He said the organisation has officers who are non-performers and stall decision-making. NHAI Chairman Sukhbir Singh Sandhu tells The Indian Express that COVID has made the organisation more aggressive in pushing targets; works worth Rs 2 lakh crore will be awarded this fiscal, and that NHAI is in the process of identifying and weeding out non-performers who delay works. Edited excerpts: