The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is sticking to its target even in the second wave of the pandemic and reiterated its allocation of projects worth Rs 2.25 lakh crore in the current financial year.

NHAI Chairman Sukhbir Singh Sandhu told Business Standard, “For FY 2022, NHAI has set a target of constructing 4,600 km of highways.”

To meet the year-long construction target, roughly 12-13 km of road would have to be constructed daily.

Sandhu said, ‘Like last year, we are committed to complete our projects in a time bound manner taking all precautions to minimize the impact of COVID and the situation it may lead to.’

NHAI has allocated 141 projects in 2020-21 which is 4,788 kms. This is the highest in three years.

NHAI constructed 4,192 km of national highways in FY 2021. Regarding this, the authority claims that this is the highest ever construction by NHAI in any financial year.

The pace of construction increased by 5 per cent in the financial year 2020-21 from 3,979 km in 2019-20 and was 24 per cent higher than the 3,380 km constructed in 2018-19.

On construction, if we talk in terms of lane kilometers (kilometers multiplied by number of lanes), NHAI had constructed 18,500 kms during FY21 which works out to 50 lane kilometers per day.

This is 40 percent higher than the 13,243 lane km constructed in 2019-20 and 91 percent higher than the 9,684 lane km constructed in 20218-19.

The Lane Kilometer Matrix was adopted by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in April 2018 which is in accordance with the international practice.

At present, construction at various places has been affected due to both the lockdown and workers falling ill in the second wave of Covid.

However, the situation is not the same across the country. In the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the worst-hit states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have suffered more damage to the workers present at the site.

News Source: FinancialExpress