India sets new record of 37 km a day in highway construction during 2020-21

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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.</p>
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He said the achievement was remarkable as it was achieved despite constraints posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
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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, </p>
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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.</p>
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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.</p>
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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;</p>
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The average annual construction length of new highway projects during 2015-2021 has increased by 83% compared to 2010-2014.</p>
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“These achievements are unprecedented and have no parallel in any other country in the world," the minister added.</p>
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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.</p>