As per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), the centre intends to construct 3,300 km of access-controlled roads in 2025-26. The total length of such corridors is expected to have increased to 5,800 km until December 2024. Moreover, the length of four-lane highways is expected to grow 8 per cent in 2025-26.
However, the country’s overall highway construction is expected to drop to 10,000 km in 2025-26. Additionally, the lower construction and awarding of regular highway projects, is also expected to bring down the monetisation target for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to Rs 300 billion in 2025-26, from an already reduced target of Rs 390 billion in 2024-25. In 2025-26, the centre also plans to bring in an additional Rs 350 billion in private capital under the build, operate, and transfer (BoT) method.
Going forward, in an effort to provide speedier connection between important economic hubs around the nation, India intends to reduce the number of two and four-lane highways and quadruple the length of high-speed roads in 2025-26.