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New Delhi: The financial year 2018-19 is the best year in the last decade so far as highway construction in the country is concerned. Highway construction and expansion in the country touched 10,800 km or 30 km per day in FY19. It is the highest pace of highway construction during the current NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In contrast, the previous UPA regime saw maximum highway construction in 2012-13 when the government added and expanded 5,732 km of roads (at around 16km/day), the Times of India reported.

Highway construction during FY19 was almost two-and-a-half times more than the total construction reported during 2013-14, the publication said. This is one of the major achievements of the Modi government and is likely to give BJP an upper hand in the upcoming general elections.

According to the ToI report, the maximum length of highway construction has been reported from highway minister Nitin Gadkari’s home state, Maharashtra (approximately 2,100 km) during 2018-19. Sources said NHAI has reported construction and widening of 3,338 km during the last financial year, which is about 10% more than that of 2017-18. It may be noted that most of the four-laning of existing highways are executed by the NHAI.

During five years of UPA-II a total of about 24,690 km were build or widened while during the current NDA regime the total construction touched nearly 39,350 km, which is an increase of about 70%.

However, the daily citing sources said a major deep was seen in the pace of award for future highway development, which is a concern. In 2018-19, all agencies could bid out works for only 5,543 km, which is less than one-third of what was bid out in 2017-18. Work for expansion and construction of 17,055 km was awarded during 2017-18, the publication mentioned.

Unlike the developed countries where highway construction usually means laying of new roads, highway development in India is largely focused on widening of existing roads.