Road Transport and Expressways (MORTH) will build 10,000 km of national highways (FY26) in the upcoming fiscal year 2025-26 (FY26), showing detailed requirements for the ministry’s grant released on Monday. According to government estimates, the development will increase the four-lane highways of the NH network by 8%.
While the fiscal 26 target is slightly lower than in previous years, officials said it was because the government may continue to push for more four-lane highway pushes. Therefore, the length seems to be smaller and the load-bearing capacity will be higher due to more lanes.
For the current fiscal 25, the government sets a revised target for the construction of 10,400 kilometers of national highways. In this process, data show that the ministry can complete the construction of the 5,853-kilometer NHS by December 2024.
The total length of the national highway is 1,46,195 kilometers, serving as the country’s arterial network. Of the total length of the NHS, the length of the National Highway Corridor (HSC) is 2,474 km, and the length above the NHS (excluding HSC) is 45,947 km.
During the fiscal 24th period, Morth was able to build 12,349 km of NH at a rate of 33.83 km per day, the second highest, 20% higher than last year. The highest achievement was 13,327 kilometers in fiscal 21.
Detailed requirements for the ministry’s grant also indicate that it aims to build 1,100 km of NHS in Northeastern states and 750 km in tribal areas this year. With this, it is estimated that the cumulative length of the operating high-speed corridor in the NHS is estimated to increase to 5,800 km in 2025-26.
According to the Ministry’s annual report for fiscal 25, the average speed of the construction awards during the 2014-24 period was 11,017 km.
The ministry also promotes more private investment on national highways through hybrid annuity models (HAM) and build, operate, transfer models (BOT). According to estimates, under all PPP projects in FY26, private sector concessions or contractors will invest Rs 350,000 crore in NH Development, which will be 30% of the total contract awarded that year.
According to the ministry, 13,795 black spots have been identified on national highways. The “short-term correction” of these measures has been completed on these black spots, and the “permanent correction” has been completed on 4,777 spots. Up to 1,000 black dots will be removed on highways that start “short-term correction” in fiscal 26.
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The ministry will raise a total of Rs 3,000 crore NH extension from asset monetization (through TOLL Operational Transfer (TOT) and invitation list). Monetization will meet 10% of the budget resources.
Moss raised Rs 40,314 crore through asset monetization over the fiscal year 24, the highest ever. Morth aims to raise Rs 390,000 crore through various asset monetization models during the fiscal 25. Among them, a concession agreement (251 km) for Tot Bundle-16 (251 km) (251 km) was signed in November 2024.
The ministry also aims to set up a total of 130 automatic testing stations (ATSS), 15 registered vehicle cancellation facilities (RVSFs) and 5 inspection and certification (I&C) centers throughout the year.
Given road safety and good driver training, it will establish four Driving Training and Research Institute (IDTR), seven Regional Driving Training Centers (RDTCs), and 25 Small Driving Training Centers. The Ministry will also conduct a total of five road safety audit training programs during the 2025-26 period.
