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CRISIL: Will Build 32-34 km/day of National Highways

2022-07-20

As input prices are anticipated to stay high, New Delhi, India's national highway building will likely only reach 32–34 km per day during the current fiscal year, according to a report released on July 18 by rating agency Crisil NSE 0.61 percent. The rating agency added that it anticipates a pick-up in highway building after the monsoon.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic-related disruption and a longer-than-usual monsoon in some regions of the country, national highway construction in India slowed to 28.64 km per day in 2021–2022.

In 2020–21, the nation's national highway (NH) construction rate reached a record-high 37 kilometres per day.

According to Crisil, grants by the Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways (MoRTH), which includes the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), fell sharply by 42% year over year to 969 km, slowing down national highway projects.

It claimed construction also slowed, falling 14% year over year to 1,966 km, or 22 km per day, as developers delayed purchasing materials due to rising input costs.

The report states that in light of this situation, awarding contracts would need to scale up dramatically over the course of the next nine months in order to meet the ministry's lofty goal of building 50 kilometres every day.

However, it added that the project award had reached a high of 12,731 km last year and that the outlook remained good.

According to Crisil, the ministry will likely award 12,000–13,000 km of national highway projects this fiscal year, primarily under the Bharatmala program. The uptake of these projects will be aided by developer-friendly policies under Atmanirbhar Bharat, which have been extended through October 2022.