Covid-19 pandemic waves slow down FY22 highway construction in India

With localised lockdowns and restrictions on mobility, highway construction growth in the country has now fallen to a five-year low

If 2019-20 (FY20) was an unusual year for highway construction in India, with the pace of work slowing down for the first time since the Narendra Modi government assumed power in 2014, largely due to the general elections in May and liquidity crunch, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21 (FY21) only made matters worse with lockdowns and labour unavailability.

The pace of highway construction in 2021-22 (FY22) has not been able to bulldoze the pandemic barriers in a year marred by two Covid-19 waves — the second at the start of the fiscal year, the third towards