The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Secretary Alka Upadhyaya has said that they are confident of achieving the highways construction target of 12,000 km for the current fiscal as the pace of construction has increased. The ministry has constructed 10,237 km in 2019-20, 13,327 km in 2020-21 and 10,457 km in 2021-22. As per reports,”NHAI will undertake asset monetisation under different modes, including toll-operate-transfer (TOT) model and InvIT in order to meet the asset monetisation target of Rs 23,000 crore this year,” she said. Upadhyaya said the Government has increased the pace of investment, and all the money allocated to the roads sector will be utilised.
The total outstanding debt of the State owned National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) stood at around Rs 3.49 lakh crore as of 31st March 2022. National Highways are developed under different modes of execution, including Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) or toll, BOT (Annuity), and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC). She has further stated that as BOT Toll projects require greater risk sharing from the private sector, particularly related to traffic assessment, the offtake of BOT projects will depend upon the market response.