New Delhi: Only Rs 763 crore of the Rs 2,067 crore allocated for maintenance of national highways for the ongoing fiscal 2019-20 has been spent till December 2019.
Around 6,940 km of national highways have been constructed till December 2019 in the ongoing fiscal, said Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha recently, he also said that about 1,522 kilometer of national highways have been constructed till December, 2019 in the ongoing financial year under Bharatmala project.
He also said that as against a target of construction of 11,000 kilometer of national highways in the ongoing fiscal, only 6940 kilometers have been constructed till December 2019. The rate of construction per day has been 25.23 kilometer till December 2019 in the current financial year.
The rate of construction per day was 12.08 kilometers in 2014-15 and 16.56 kilometers in 2015-16.
The rate of construction per day was 22.55 kilometers in 2016-17 and 26.93 kilometers in 2017-18. It was 29.74 in 2018-19 fiscal.
Bharatmala Project is a huge highways construction project envisaged by the government of India. It is the second largest highways construction project in India after NHDP. Under Bharatmala, about 50,000 kilometers of highways are to be constructed to improve connectivity of economic corridors in the country, border areas and far-fetched places.