Course Correction: Key developments in the road sector

September 9, 2026

Over the past year, India’s road sector has witnessed a growing shift in focus, from construction towards technology-led development, life cycle management, barrier-free tolling, road safety and sustainable construction. The surge in asset sales and uptake of infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) have strengthened the sector’s investment potential. Moreover, the centre has implemented various reforms and policy measures aimed at resolving long-standing issues.

Indian Infrastructure takes a look at some of the key developments in the road sector over the past year…

Policy reset 

  • In Union Budget 2026-27, the allocation for the sector increased by 8 per cent to Rs 3.1 trillion.
  • The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) enabled the secure sharing of National Transport Repository data with state governments and the private sector.
  • The use of precast concrete components was mandated for non-critical components in highway projects costing over Rs 3 billion.
  • MoRTH synchronised project approvals, awards and developer appointments with milestones for land acquisition, and environment, forest and wildlife clearances.
  • An additional security performance was imposed for bids lower than the estimated cost of the project.
  • MoRTH revised the model concession agreement for build-operate-transfer (BOT) toll projects to balance risks and rewards with concessionaires and boost private investments.
  • The National Highways Fee Rules, 2008 were amended to charge lower, standard national highway toll rates on partially completed expressways.
  • MoRTH extended the construction timeline for national highways by up to six years based on the cost of the project, terrain, volume and structural complexities.

Trends in on-ground execution

  • Project awards in the first nine months of FY 2026 stood at 2,257 km, while 4,989 km was constructed.
  • Under the Bharatmala Pariyojana, 26,425 km was awarded, and 22,590 km was constructed.
  • Multimodal logistics parks (MMLPs) in Chennai, Indore and Bengaluru remained under implementation, while work was re-awarded for Nagpur, with various other MMLPs at early stages of development.
  • In 2025-26, about 15,647 km of road length and 1,042 bridges were completed under different verticals of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

Unlocking value via monetisation

  • MoRTH’s road monetisation programme surpassed Rs 1.5 trillion. During 2025-26, around Rs 283.07 billion was mobilised.
  • In April 2026, the National Monetisation Programme 2.0 was launched. Under this, highways, MMLPs and ropeways are expected to yield Rs 4.42 trillion during the period 2025-26 to 2029-30.

Project pipeline gathers pace

  • In April 2026, the centre inaugurated the 594 km Ganga Expressway (Rs 362.3 billion), the 213 km Delhi-Dehradun Expressway (Rs 120 billion) and the 109 km Ahmedabad-Dholera Expressway (Rs 58 billion).
  • The proposal to construct a new two-lane tube tunnel parallel to the existing Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee tunnel was approved.
  • Key contracts awarded include the Digha-Bihta road (35.22 km, Rs 64.98 billion) to Vishwa Samudra Engineering, the Ujjain-Jaora four-lane highway (98 km, Rs 24 billion) to LLC Volgadorstroy and the Madh-Versova Creek bridge (1.63 km, Rs 18 billion) to APCO Infratech-RBL.

Assets changing hands

  • The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) accepted the Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust’s (RIIT) offer of Rs 95 billion for the monetisation of five road assets spanning over 260 km across four states.
  • IRB Infrastructure Developers acquired the Gandeva-Ena (VM7) HAM asset, valued at around Rs 12 billion.
  • VINCI Highways agreed to acquire Macquarie’s Safeway Concessions portfolio, com­pr­ising nine toll-operate-transfer assets spanning 648 km, for a value of Rs 150 billion.

Technology takes the wheel

  • To improve road safety, in April 2026, the Bihar government approved the deployment of an artificial intelligence-powered traffic management system.
  • In the same month, NHAI initiated a mandatory digital-only toll collection system.
  • NHAI launched the multi-lane free flow system on Choryasi Fee Plaza (Surat, Gujarat), Mundka Fee Plaza (Delhi), Gharaunda Fee Plaza (Haryana), Manoharpura Fee Plaza (Rajasthan) and Daulatpura Fee Plaza (Rajasthan). Bids were invited for 104 fee plazas, and 12 more were at the award stage.

Other major strides 

  • Overall toll collection reached Rs 702.78 billion in 2025-26.
  • Over Rs 100 billion worth of insurance surety bonds were issued by insurance companies for contracts with NHAI.
  • The NHAI-sponsored RIIT was listed on the BSE and was oversubscribed by 14 times.
  • Cube Highways Trust raised Rs 12.5 billion, ahead of its Rs 50 billion initial public
    offering.
  • MoRTH launched a major initiative to develop hydrogen highways. Around Rs 5 billion was sanctioned to five consortiums.
  • NHAI and Rajpath Infracon set four Guinness World Records on different packages of the Bengaluru-Kadapa-Vijayawada Economic Corridor by paving around 184 lane km and laying 68,155 metric tonnes of bituminous concrete in record time.

Related Articles