The roads ministry also expects higher retail participation in the coming round of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) fund raising.
“We are finalising the target of road construction for the current fiscal after undertaking a realistic assessment,” a senior ministry official told ET. “We don’t want to be too conservative, but also want to ensure that achievable goals are set.”
The Centre had targeted developing 12,200 kilometres (km) of national highways (NH) in 2022-23, but could manage to construct 10,933 km. This was the second consecutive year that the target was missed.
It was earlier expected that the target for highways construction for fiscal 2023-24 will be kept at around 12,500 km, but this is now being reassessed.
On financial health of NHAI and its fund raising avenues, the official said toll income of the highway builder will comfortably be enough to meet its debt-servicing requirements.”NHAI’s income stood at Rs 41,000 crore in 2022-23 and this will rise to ₹1.25 lakh crore in 2028-29,” he said.He said the third round of fundraising using InvITs is being firmed up.