NHAI looks to build 1,100-km highways in March to meet FY18 target

NHAI will strive to construct 1,100 km of highways this month to achieve its target of building 3,500 km in the ongoing fiscal, its Chairman Deepak Kumar said.

As far as target for awards of 10,000 km for the fiscal is concerned, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had awarded projects for a length of nearly 2,700 km, costing Rs 43,000 crore till January.

"Our target (for construction of highways) is 3,500 km. We have completed 2,400 km," Kumar said adding that the authority is hopeful of almost meeting the target for the fiscal.

"The NHAI has invited bids for a length of 10,460 km, costing nearly Rs 1,75,000 crore till January, 2018, and is all set to achieve a quantum jump in the award of road projects in the year 2017-18," the ministry of road transport and highways has said recently.

The average length of road projects awarded by NHAI in the last 5 years was 2,860 km, with 4,335 km awarded in 2016-17.

The ministry has recently said that about 5,000 km of projects will be awarded in March, 2018, subject to a good response in bidding and cooperation from state governments in land acquisition and project clearances.

The projects include 1,900 km in Maharashtra, followed by Rajasthan (1,150 km), Uttar Pradesh (1,020 km), Odisha (880 km), Andhra Pradesh (745 km), Madhya Pradesh (740 km), Gujarat (650 km), Karnataka (620 km), Tamilnadu (570 km), Bihar (500 km), Jharkhand (430 km), Telangana (365 km), Haryana (350 km), West Bengal (280 km) and Chhattisgarh (270 km).

To ensure that the targets are achieved, NHAI has set up a monitoring mechanism.