There are 1,957 National Highways (NHs) projects under implementation in the country covering 55,561 km with a total project cost of around ₹11,23,059 crore, Parliament was informed on Thursday.
According to the data provided by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in Lok Sabha in response to a query, the highest quantum of funds have been for NH projects in Maharashtra followed by Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Kerala.
In Maharashtra, a total of 281 projects covering 9,373.14 km are under implementation with a project cost of ₹1.41-lakh crore. Uttar Pradesh has 98 projects covering 3,931 km with a cost of ₹97,079.48 crore. Similarly, Bihar has 107 projects covering 3,461.25 crore with a cost of ₹83,618.89 crore under implementation.
In South India, Karnataka leads the tally with 105 NH projects covering 3,520.10 km being built with a cost of ₹68,338.69 crore under implementation, while Kerala has 39 projects of 1,089.88 km under implementation costing ₹66,170.69 crore.
State roads
In a separate query in Lok Sabha, Gadkari said Ministry of Road Highways and Transport (MoRTH) has released ₹5,508.38 crore during April-December period of FY23 for development and maintenance of state roads under CRIF Scheme. The accruals to CRIF during the same period stood at ₹8,553.41 crore.
The MoRTH allocates funds for state governments and union territories (UTs) for development and maintenance of state roads under the Central Road & Infrastructure Fund (CRIF) Scheme, he added.
The Ministry finalised the criteria for allocation of funds for development and maintenance of state roads under CRIF in consultation with the Finance Ministry and circulated the same to all states and UTs in January 2020 and amendments were issued in April 2022.
The finalisation of projects by MoRTH is done in consultation with states and Uts and the criteria includes administrative approvals by concerned states, technical approval & financial sanction (TA&FS) of administratively approved projects by states Public Works Departments (PWDs), Road Construction Departments, etc.