New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the government’s aim is to accelerate the pace of highway construction to 60 km a day.
Speaking at Times
Network’s India Economic Conclave 2025, Gadkari said that highway construction in the country has slowed down as no fresh projects are now taken up under the Centre’s flagship Bharatmala Pariyojana.
“Our target is to accelerate the pace of highway construction in the country to 60 km per day,” he said.
The minister also said the government’s aim is to make India’s automobile industry number one in the world in the coming 8-10 years.
Presently, the size of the US automobile industry is Rs 78 lakh crore, followed by China (Rs 47 lakh crore) and India (Rs 22 lakh crore). The minister said there is a need to focus on agriculture to boost India’s GDP growth.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is primarily responsible for the development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs), including National Expressways.
The highways ministry has set a construction target of 10,000 km for National Highways (NHs) projects for the current financial year 2025-26, considering the present progress of ongoing works and the projects which are to be taken up, subject to the fulfilment of pre-construction activities.
The construction target of 10,000 km for the current financial year 2025-26 is of the same range as that of the previous financial year 2024-25, which was about 10,420 km, against which the achievement was 10,660 km.
The ministry constructed 10,420 km of national highways in 2024-25, 12,349 km in 2023-24 and 10,331 km in 2022-23.
Bharatmala Pariyojana was launched by the government of India, covering a length of 34,800 km with an estimated cost of Rs. 5.35 lakh crore to improve connectivity and reduce logistics cost in the country. PTI BKS BKS MR
