News Brief
India Targets 10,000 Km Of Highway Construction In FY 2025-26, Eyes Rs 30,000 Crore From Monetisation
National Highways. (Representative Image)
The government has set a target of constructing 10,000 km of highways in FY26 while aiming to raise Rs 30,000 crore through monetisation of road assets, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) has informed a Department related Parliamentary Committee on Transport.
This target is slightly lower than the 10,421 km set for FY25, and the monetisation goal has also been revised downward from Rs 39,000 crore anticipated for the current fiscal year, reported Financial Express.
The construction plan includes 1,100 km of highways in North-Eastern states, 750 km in tribal areas, and 5,800 km of high-speed corridor networks, which are planned to be operationalised in the coming year.
For monetisation, Rs 15,000 crore each is expected to be raised via Toll Operate Transfer (TOT) and Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) models.
However, no target has been set for project based financing which involves debt raising against identified assets. The asset backed financing has been used on Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has identified 24 highway assets spanning 1,472 km for monetisation in 2025-26.
Two additional TOT bundles are expected to bring in Rs 18,000 crore, while NHIT (National Highways Infrastructure Trust) is set to generate another Rs 20,000 crore by monetising 844 km of roads across six states.
Funds raised via InvIT will be used primarily to repay debt, while monetisation funds via TOT will be deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India and allocated to MORTH’s budget.
The government is also pushing to attract private investment, aiming for Rs 35,000 crore in private funding for highway projects in 2025-26, with 30 per cent of awarded projects expected to be executed under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
The 2025-26 Union Budget has allocated Rs 2.71 lakh crore for central sector roads. At present, 37,000 km of National Highway projects are currently under execution, 15,000 km of which were completed by December 2024.
