Govt. to increase road construction target by 50% next fiscal

The Government of India is looking to increase its roads construction target for the next fiscal by 50%. About 15,000 km of road construction projects are expected to be awarded next year. A budgetary support of more than Rs. 60,000 crore is expected to be sought for 2016-17. The total spending will be taken to Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

In the financial year 2014-15, the government awarded 8,000 km of road construction contracts. Spending on road projects amounted to around Rs 55,000 for the year.

In 2015-16, the target for the road, transport and highways ministry was 10,000 km. About 27 km of road contracts are awarded each day. The ministry has spent approximately 60% of its total budget of Rs. 42,000 crore for the year.

In 2016-17 the ministry plans to raise its rate to 41 km per day. Around 100 projects are expected to be awarded. 30% will be done through private participation. The rest will be done through government-funded engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model.

Source: ET Auto