Work on road construction has picked up once again, with 729 km of highways readied in the month of May -- 18% more than the 617 km built in pandemic-hit May 2021.
In fact, the pace of construction fell by over 20% in 2021-22 to 10,457 km of national highways as compared with 13,327 km in 2020-21. “There are signs that road construction activity will pick up hereon after a not-so-impressive last year.
But, with monsoon on the horizon, the pace may once again suffer with a big pick-up expected from September onwards," said an official at the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH).
The slump in road construction last year and again in April this year came even as the government promised to take highway construction to an all-time high with the rate going up to 50 km a day in FY23 from less than 30 km a day in the previous fiscal year.