he Ministry is primarily responsible for development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs).
Details of budgetary allocation of the Ministry for development and maintenance of NHs along with NH length constructed, during the last ten years, are as under:-
Amount in Rs. Crore; Length in km | ||
Year | Budgetary Allocation | Constructed NH Length |
2013-14 | 24,775 | 4,260 |
2014-15 | 27,318 | 4,410 |
2015-16 | 43,667 | 6,061 |
2016-17 | 44,222 | 8,231 |
2017-18 | 53,182 | 9,829 |
2018-19 | 70,742 | 10,855 |
2019-20 | 74,767 | 10,237 |
2020-21 | 94,257 | 13,327 |
2021-22 | 1,23,537 | 10,457 |
2022-23 | 2,08,226 | 10,331 |
Budgetary allocation of the Ministry has increased from about Rs. 31,130 Crore in 2013-14 to about Rs. 2,76,351 Crore in 2023-24.Budgetary allocation for 2024-25 is Rs. 2,78,000 Crore.
NH network length in the country has increased by 1.6 times from 91,287 km in March, 2014 to 1,46,145 km at present.With increased budgetary allocation since April 2014, quality of roads has improved substantially. Length of 4 lane and above NH network has increased by more than 2.5 times from 18,371 km in 2014 to 46,720 km. Also less than 2 lane NHs has almost halved from 27,517 km to 14,350 km by bringing down the share of less than 2 lane NHs from 30% to 10% of the total NH network.
Ministry has decided to focus on development of High Speed Access controlled NHs for improving the logistics efficiency of the country. In addition, Ministry has also adopted a policy to improve all NHs as per the traffic requirement but minimum Two Lane with paved shoulders standards except for ecologically sensitive Himalayan region where development plan is finalised considering the geological, environmental factors etc.
