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Alka Upadhyaya, Secretary of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), said that MoRTH has put plans in place to maintain the pace of highway development and construct 12,500 km of highways in the current financial year (FY24). Upadhyaya said Rs 10,000 crore is planned to be raised through Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) mode in FY 2023-24.

She mentioned ‘For 2023-24, MoRTH has taken up targets to award 12,000 km and construct 12,500 km of highways in the country.’ The road transport and highways ministry is yet to declare data on the construction and award of highway projects for 2022-23. The ministry has constructed 10,237 kilometres in 2019-20, 13,327 kilometres in 2020-21 and 10,457 kilometres in 2021-22.

Besides, she said MoRTH has leveraged various innovative ways of funding its infrastructure projects by involving the private sector in highway construction. Moreover, she said  ‘Till February 28, 2023, Rs 10,200 crore has been raised through InvIT in two phases, for a total length of 635 km, while InvIT III is planned to be awarded in April 2023 for a total of Rs 10,000 crore.’