Road ministry likely to miss construction target of 40 km/day for FY19

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is unlikely to meet the ambitious road construction target of 40 kilometer a day for the financial year ending March 31, according to a government document reviewed by CNBC-TV18.

The average road construction for national highways remained at around 24 km till December end. At this pace, the MoRTH, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) have constructed a cumulative road length of 6,715 km till December.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has been pushing for an ambitious figure of 40 km/day road construction for FY19, which would translate into 15,000-km of road construction for the fiscal year but the officials have set a more realistic target of 10,000-km for the ministry.

"Official target for road construction for the current financial year remains 10,000 km. Earlier in the fiscal, there was a meeting held where this (target) was increased to around 16,000 km with 6,000 km for NHAI, around 9,000 km for road ministry and 700 km for NHIDCL but later on, after further discussion these were amended and an official target of 10,000-km was kept for road construction for the current fiscal and this was then submitted to the Prime Minister's Office," multiple sources aware of the development told CNBC-TV18.

Despite the ambitious target, the ministry has so far been able to award projects of road length 2,355 km till December, as issues pertaining to land acquisition and financial closure of projects remained major roadblocks, the document showed.

Similar concerns were highlighted by Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Mansukh L. Mandaviya in Lok Sabha. In a written reply to a query, Mandaviya said that “land acquisition remains a long drawn process” in awarding projects.

"As far as awarding is concerned, there was a conscious decision to complete pending projects first and only award those which are absolutely ready for construction," a person aware of the development said on condition of anonymity.

Due to issues pertaining to land acquisition and financial closure of projects, the ministry may at best be able to award projects for 4,000 to 4,500 km of roads by the end of the current fiscal, a far cry from the targeted 15,000-km.

With the Lok Sabha elections just months away, the government may not be able to achieve its target of awarding construction projects and the final rate for road construction for the entire year will be something to watch out for.