Economic Survey 2023: Government's Focus On Budgetary Support Augments Road Connectivity

The construction of National Highways (NHs) in the country has increased substantially since 2015-16, hitting unprecedented levels in 2020-21, the Economic Survey 2022-23 said.

Union Minister for Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (31 January) tabled in Parliament, the Economic Survey (ES) 2022-2023, which reviews how the economy performed in this fiscal year and the road ahead for the next year.

It said that there has been an increase in the construction of NHs over time with 10,457 km of roads constructed in FY 2021-22 as compared to 6,061 km in FY 2015-16.

In the ongoing fiscal (FY23), (until October 2022), 4,060 km of NHs/roads were constructed, which was around 91 per cent of the achievement in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

The survey said that the road infrastructure in the form of a network of national highways, state highways, district roads, rural roads, and urban roads acts as a major mode of transportation and connectivity for the country’s diverse population of consumers and businesses.

Roads supplement the other modes of transport, through last-mile connectivity to the far-flung regions of the country, it said.

The ES 2022-23 has recorded its appreciation for the tremendous increase in total budgetary support for investment in the road sector, which has augmented road connectivity in the country.

Total budgetary support for investment in the road sector has been increasing rapidly in the last four years and stood at around ₹1.4 lakh crore during FY23 (as of 31 October 2022), noted the Survey.

The survey also tracks the performance on asset monetisation in the road sector.

NHAI InvIT is the infrastructure investment trust sponsored by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to support the government’s National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP).

Launched in FY22, it not only facilitates monetisation of roads but also attracts foreign and domestic institutional investors to invest in the roads sector.

So far, NHAI InvIT has raised more than Rs 10,200 crore from high quality foreign and Indian institutional investors up to December 2022, noted the Economic Survey.

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