MoRTH estimates investment of Rs 7 trillion in the highways sector in next five years

The central government is planning to extend the country’s existing national highway network of 115,000 km to 200,000 km. For this, the MoRTH has estimated a fund requirement of around Rs 7 trillion over the next five years. This requirement will be met through the MoRTH’s gross budgetary support, the Central Road Fund, toll remittance, the monetisation of national highways through the toll-operate-transfer model, external borrowings by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and private sector investment. Further, the MoRTH has identified 208 level crossings on national highways for the construction of road overbridges (RoBs) under the Setu Bharatam scheme. So far, the feasibility studies for 87 RoB projects have been completed. The MoRTH has also approved the conversion of about 51,300 km of state roads to national highways, subject to the outcome of their detailed project reports.