NHAI plans Rs 3.10 lakh crore expressways by FY25

NEW DELHI: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has charted a Rs 3.10-lakh crore plan to build 22 greenfield expressways as part of a plan to decongest major cities, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said.
Of the 7,500 km new roads, NHAI plans to build six expressways of 2,250 km, entailing an investment of `1.45 lakh crore, while another 16 greenfield corridors with aggregate length of 5,250 km will require an investment of Rs 1.65 lakh crore. “We are working on 22 greenfield expressways.

This will decongest major cities and help develop the economy of backward areas,” Gadkari, who is the minister for road transport and highways, said. According to the roads ministry, the expressways will help mitigate issues like land acquisition, utility shifting and other clearances related to brown-field expansion.

The projects are expected to be complete by fiscal 2025, according to the proposal. Of these, work on three expressways has already begun, Delhi-Mumbai expressway being the major one, also India’s longest expressway at 1,320 km.

Among the corridors NHAI proposes to build are—Ahmedabad-Dholera, Delhi-Amritsar-Katra, Chennai-Bengaluru, Kanpur-Lucknow, Bangalore Ring Road, Amritsar-Bhatinda-Jamnagar, Hyderabad-Raipur, and Nagpur-Vijayawada.

The expressways will help improve alignment and provide connectivity to major towns, thereby reducing travel time, NHAI has proposed.

HIGHER BUDGET ALLOCATION
The roads ministry has sought a budgetary support of around Rs 94,000 crore for the next financial year, a senior government official said. In the budget for 2019-20, the ministry was allocated a budgetary support of Rs 83,015 crore.

“We have asked for around Rs 8,000-10,000 crore over last year’s budgetary support,” the official said. Another official told ET that NHAI has raised a demand for budgetary support of Rs 45,000 crore. It was allocated Rs 36,691 crore last year.

Meanwhile, NHAI also plans to raise around Rs 65,000 crore in FY 21, the official said. NHAI’s borrowing target is Rs 10,000 crore less than what was approved last year.