Under the first phase to be completed by 2022, 34,800 km of highways will be built. The government has set an ambitious target of building almost 40 km of roads per day – up from 9km/day just three years ago – this fiscal. Between 2014-15 and 2016-17, the overall allocation to the highways sector has increased by 73 % — from Rs 1.3 lakh crore to Rs 2.25 lakh crore. In the last three-and-a-half years, the government has taken a slew of policy initiatives to raise revenue and lure back the private sector to invest in highways sector. With the appetite for public private partnership projects going down, the highways ministry decided to first move to the EPC (engineering procurement contract) model where the government funds the entire project.

Source: Hindustan Times October 24, 2017 09:06 UTC