Highways sector allocation may increase by Rs 10K cr in Budget

Highways sector allocation is expected to swell by about Rs 10,000 crore in the Budget for the next fiscal, a source said on Wednesday.

India has an ambitious highways building programme and under Bharatmala, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has identified stretches for development of about 26,200 km length of economic corridors, 8,000 km of inter corridors, 7,500 km of feeder routes, 5,300 km border and international connectivity roads, 4,100 km coastal and port connectivity roads and 1,900 km expressways in near future.

"We expect the budgetary allocation for the highways sector to increase by Rs 8,000-10,000 crore," the source said.

The allocation for highways sector during the last budget was about Rs 83,000 crore.

In the last budget, the government had said that going beyond incremental growth, India has attained the fastest growth in highways building at 27 km a day and is all set for a quantum leap in transport infrastructure.

The road building pace has reached about 30 km a day at present.

The government had approved Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I in October, 2017 with an aggregate length of about 34,800 km (including 10,000 km residual NHDP stretches) at an estimated outlay of Rs 5.35 lakh crore.

Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I is targeted for completion in 2021-22.