India’s highway construction witnessing a slowdown

India’s road network spans 66 lakh kilometres (km) and its national highway (NH) network spans about 1.45 lakh km. It is second only to the US, both in terms of overall road network and NH network. The NH network is projected to become 2 lakh km by FY25. The government’s budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) for developing road infrastructure has grown 34 per cent annually between FY20-24. The NH network has grown at a compounded rate of 5 per cent since FY14. India needs to increase the pace to 17 per cent CAGR to reach the 2 lakh km milestone by FY25. However, the pace of construction, which peaked during FY21 owing to the lockdown and fewer vehicles on road, has now slowed down