India has achieved the record-breaking milestone of constructing 37 kilometres highways per day in 2020-21 which works out 13,394 km for the entire financial year, Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.

He said the achievement was remarkable as it was achieved despite constraints posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said over the past seven years, the length of national highways has shot up by 50% from 91,287 km in  April 2014  to 1,37,625 km on 20 March 2021, 

Total budgetary outlay on highways has increased by 5.5 times, from Rs 33,414 crore in the financial year 2015 to Rs 1,83,101 crore for the financial year 2022.

Total budgetary outlay on highways increased by 5.5 times, from Rs 33,414 crore in 2014-2015 to Rs 1,83,101 crore in 2021-2022.

The sanctioned amount has increased by 126% in Financial Year 2021 over Financial Year 2020 despite Covid-19 related impact. Sanctioned length in kilometers has also increased by 9% in Financial Year 2021 over Financial Year 2020;

The average annual construction length of new highway projects during 2015-2021 has increased by 83% compared to 2010-2014.

“These achievements are unprecedented and have no parallel in any other country in the world," the minister added.

Among the major projects, the Delhi- Meerut Expressway has now opened for traffic from Thursday.”We have fulfilled our promise of reducing travel time between Delhi – Meerut from 2.5 hours to 45 minutes,” the minister said.