25% higher budgetary allocation to MoRTH augurs well for the connectivity story

Eye on the road

The Union Budget 2023-24 underscored the central government’s focus on infrastructure development in India with a big increase in infrastructure spending.

At Rs 12.6 lakh crore, the aggregate budgetary support for the 11* core infrastructure ministries in fiscal 2024 budget estimate (BE) was up a sharp 17% over fiscal 2023 revised estimate (RE).

Almost a fifth (20%) of this outlay was allocated to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), making it one of the most well-funded infrastructure ministries, only behind railways.

Notably, the fiscal 2024BE allocation of Rs 2.59 lakh crore towards MoRTH marked a staggering growth of 38% over fiscal 2023BE and a steep growth of 25% over fiscal 2023RE.

The budgetary allocation towards the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the next fiscal is also 15% higher than fiscal 2023RE and amounts to Rs 1.62 lakh crore, almost 5.5 times higher than the allocation seen in fiscal 2019BE.

The share of NHAI in MoRTH’s budgetary support stands at 63%, higher than the previous five-year average of 54%, underlining its pivotal role in the country’s highway infrastructure development in the past few fiscals.