FY24 national-highway construction a slow start due to unseasonal rain

Unseasonal rain dampens momentum gathered in March

Owing to unseasonal rain, national-highway construction in April stood at 523 km, or 17.4 km a day, making it the slowest start in a fiscal year in the past six years, barring 2020, when pandemic-induced lockdown had halted most of the work in the country.

March-June is usually the peak construction season because the weather and financial conditions favour more work getting done.

However, there were several spells of rain in April across the country. Forecasts suggest this trend will reduce in frequency in the coming months. This would mean highway construction may pick up in May and June before the monsoon sets in.

Meanwhile, the national highway data for March shows 78 km of construction a day, which is historically high. Since the data appears to be a bit of a stretch, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has not released it.

According to reports, it also took a comprehensive review of the data to identify the reasons for the sudden spike in numbers. One is a backlog in data collection.

The Centre has been targeting at least 40 km per day for years now, but fell short in the recent past. Since hitting an all-time high in 2019-20 at 36 km per day, the government has been attempting to stay the pace, but it ended the following fiscal years at 26-29 km a day.

The ministry has been provided Rs 2.7 trillion in the FY23 Budget, meaning that higher execution would be needed for effective capital expenditure absorption and timely usage of funds.