Collectively 8,064 km of national highways have been constructed in 2022-23 till February, which makes it nearly impossible for the government to meet its target of 12,000 km by the end of March.
In the current financial year, NHAI had initially planned to award 600-1,000 km highway stretches through the BOT model and managed to award projects of around 650 km, an NHAI official said.
Fixing fair O&M costs through the maintenance period will sustain quality of roads, provide exit windows for developers after construction and boost mergers and acquisitions in the sector
While the budget may hike outlays, the roads’ sector is hampered by problems on the execution front
In the current financial year, NHAI had initially planned to award 450 km of road projects through the BOT model but is likely to exceed its set target, one company official said, with 15-20 percent of total projects being under this mode in 2022-23.