The 40km per day target set by the Centre in the construction of roads and highways was not met in the past two-and-a-half years.
“We have achieved reasonably well and broken many targets in road construction. The 40km road construction was just a target that was set high to achieve the maximum,” said Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.
Construction of roadworks by the ministry in the past two years has been progressing at a speed of 17.3 km per day, according to statistics of the National Highway Authority of India. “We will try to fulfill this target of 40km road construction next year,” the minister said.
Speaking on the budget, he said the Rs 65,000 crore, allotted to his ministry, is sufficient. “We will do more than what that money can achieve. The ministry is preparing to invest Rs 2.5 lakh crore in 200 road projects in this year,” Gadkari said. The minister added that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) collected Rs 1.5 lakh crore in toll taxes last year. “We are also thinking of monetising 100 assets of NHAI. Talks in these regard were already held when the crown prince of UAE visited Delhi.”
“There is no dearth of money for us. We are not dependent only on budgetary allocation,” Gadkari said.
According to road ministry officials, the ministry had also sought an additional Rs 5,000 crore, allocated to it in the previous budget year, from the Finance Ministry after the Union Budget. Gadkari confirmed the development and said there was some anomaly. “We have asked the Finance ministry to restore that Rs 5,000 crore in the ministry's allocation.”
His ministry had cited in communications to the PMO that the slower pace of work done under the ministry was due to late release of funds for its many projects.
