In the budget speech of 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government is aiming to expand the national highway network in the country by 25,000 km. This highway expansion work will be carried out in 2022-23.
The Economic Survey 2021-22
As per the Economic Survey 2021-22, the road network in India has increased substantially in the current fiscal year as compared to previous years. There has been a consistent increase in the construction of National Highways/roads since 2013-14 with 13,327 km of roads constructed in 2020-21 as compared to 10,237 km in 2019-20, indicating an increase of 30.2 per cent over the previous year, said the survey.
The Indian road network consists of National Highways, State Highways, district roads, rural roads, urban roads, and project roads of over 63.71 lakh km as on March 31 2019, which is the second-largest in the world, after the US with 66.45 lakh km of roads.
“The significant upturn in road construction in 2020-21 is due to the increase in public expenditure by 29.5 per cent as compared to the previous year - a reflection of the impetus given by the Government of India to a critical sector that generates employment and supports infrastructure during a pandemic year," the Survey said.