Budget 2022: National highways network to be expanded by 25,000km

The country’s national highways will be expanded by 25,000km in 2022-23 under the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity.

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget speech on Tuesday, announced that the country’s national highways will be expanded by 25,000km in 2022-23 under the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the Union Budget. (PTI)

This means 70km roads per day will be built, which is almost double the rate of 40km that was set for 2022. An allocation of ₹20,000 crore has been proposed for the project.

The Economic Survey 2021-22 released on Monday said that in 2021-22 (till September), 20.89km of highways were constructed daily, which was almost half of the annual target of 40km a day set for the year. This was also slightly more than 36.5km per day in 2020-21 when a countrywide lockdown was imposed to check the Covid-19 spread.

Sitharaman also announced that 100 new cargo terminals will be developed in the next three years. This too will come under the Gati Shakti plan. Launched in October last year, the plan is aimed at coordinated planning and execution of infrastructure projects and bringing down logistics costs. The idea is to create a synergy between infrastructure and logistics, both of people and goods, and the location of projects.