From a 90 per cent capital expenditure target for up to December 2023, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) now aims to spend just 80 per cent in the first three quarters, officials aware of the matter told News18. Further, up to August, it has managed to utilise around 44 per cent of the total Gross Budget Support (GBS).
The total capex outlay for MoRTH in the current financial year is Rs 2.58 lakh crore. “Up to August 31, the ministry has spent Rs 1.12 lakh crore,” a ministry official told News18 on the condition of anonymity.
Further, they said now, the target for capex is 80 per cent against 90 per cent decided earlier. The ministry aims to spend about 50 per cent of the capex by mid-year.
In the next few months, the country will witness the Lok Sabha elections. The ministries are prioritising spending and aim to utilise a major part of it by December 2023.
MoRTH had spent Rs 59,078 crore in the first two months. By the end of quarter one, it had spent Rs 99,273 crore. By July-end, it managed to utilise just Rs 1.01 lakh crore.
Speaking to News18, another ministry official said the targets have been lowered as the pace of road building is impacted due to heavy rainfalls.
“The pace of projects and national highway building are badly impacted during monsoons due to unpredicted weather. In the last three months, several parts of the country witnessed extremely heavy rainfall for days. This impacts the pace of road construction. We are trying our best to achieve all the targets,” the official added, seeking anonymity.
Average per day national highway construction dropped to 21 km
While the ministry is spending the capex fast, the pace of per day road construction has dropped to 21 km up to August from 25 km up to June — though still better than last year’s numbers.
Till June this year, MoRTH constructed 2,250 km of national highway, up from 1,966 km in 2022 during the same period.
Up to July, the ministry constructed 2,670 km of national highway, an improvement from last year’s 2,493 km construction.
In 2022-23, by August, the ministry constructed 2,912 km of national highway. This year, for the same period, it has improved to 3,196 km.
The ministry aims to build 37 kilometres of national highway per day as it has set the target of 13,800 km for this financial year.
However, it has been missing targets in the last few years. MoRTH managed to construct only 10,993 km of national highways during the last financial year, falling about 15 per cent short of the target of 12,500 km.
In 2021-22, the ministry missed its construction targets as it managed to build 10,457 km of national highways against the target of 12,000 km. In 2019-20, against a target of 11,000 km, the ministry managed to construct 10,237 km.
The year 2020-21 was an exception when the ministry managed to surpass the targets. Against a target of 11,000 km set for the year, when the nationwide lockdown was imposed for weeks, the ministry managed to construct 13,227 km of national highways.
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