The pace of construction of national highways increased 14% on-year in the first quarter this fiscal, riding on a strong pipeline of awards from previous fiscals, even as awarding of projects by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH)declined 37%. The divergence is expected to continue over the remaining fiscal as well.

Awarding of NH projects dropped over a third on-year…

Only 611 km of national highway projects were awarded in the first quarter, compared with 969 km in the corresponding quarter last fiscal, ostensibly to clear previously awarded projects and issues related to land acquisition.

The ministry awarded contracts to build 12,376 km of national highways in fiscal 2023 - the second consecutive year awarding remained comfortably above the12,000 km mark.

This fiscal, awarding is expected to moderate a tad, although the strong Bharatmala pipeline is likely to keep awarding healthy at 10,000-12,000 km of national highways.