Budgetary allocation for road transport and highways has increased from about Rs 31,130 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 3,00,019 crore in 2024-25, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
“Capital expenditure on National Highways (NHs) has been significantly increased from about Rs 51,000 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 3.01 lakh crore in 2023-24. Infrastructure sector is the prime mover of the economy and contributes to faster economic growth and development,” Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari said in a written statement to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha.
Advertisement
National Highways (NH) network length in the country has increased from 91,287 km in March 2014 to 1,46,204 km at present, including the states of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and North-eastern States.
With increased budgetary allocation over the years, the quality of roads has improved substantially. Length of 4 lane and above NH network has increased by 2.5 times from about 18,371 km in 2014 to about 48,430 km.
Also, the proportion of less than 2-lane NHs has decreased from 30 per cent to 9 per cent of the total NH network. National High-Speed Corridors (HSCs) / Expressways of about 2,474 km length have already been operationalised. The above developments have increased the connectivity and accessibility to the NHs across the country and also increased the logistics efficiency.
