Minister for Road Transport & Highway -- Nitin Gadkari said the Road Transport and Highways ministry has constructed 13,327 km of National Highways in 2020-21 (FY21), which works out to about 37 km per day. Gadkari said to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic effect, his ministry took initiatives under Atmanirbhar Bharat and provided several COVID-19 relief measures to contractors, concessionaires and consultants, including extension of time for 3-9 months.
He also noted that the cost of ongoing projects may increase due to site, local and project specific factors or other factors including price escalation during the project time cycle. He said out of total 1,39,032 km, about 37,058 km National Highways have 4/6 lane infrastructure.
He stated said the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had approved the proposal for investment approval for Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana on October 24,2017 for an amount of Rs 5,35,000 crore. he said ‘once Bharatmala Pariyojana is implemented, it is envisaged that the National Highway network of length 70,000+ km (50 per cent of National Highway Network) will have a consistent 4-lane and above infrastructure.’