From Rs 15,000 Crore To Rs 3 Lakh Crore: How India’s Highways Got A Capital And Technology Boost

Last Updated:March 07, 2026, 15:55 IST

In 2005-06, nearly nine out of every 10 kilometres of National Highways were two-lane or below. Today, one-third of the network is four-lane and above

Backed by unprecedented budget allocations and large-scale mechanised construction, India has expanded its four-lane and above national highway network nearly six-fold in the last two decades, marking a structural shift in road capacity.

For 2026-27, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has been allocated Rs 3.09 lakh crore, almost a 20-fold increase from Rs 15,450 crore in 2009-10. The allocation for 2026-27 is about 2.5 times when compared to 2021-22. A significant jump of about 70 per cent was reported between 2021-22 and 2022-23 as the allocation increased from Rs1.23 lakh crore to Rs 2.08 lakh crore. MoRTH, in its current independent form, was created in 2009. Before 2009, road transport and highways were managed under different ministerial nomenclature.

An analysis of the past data shows that since 2008-09, the national highway length has doubled. The total National Highway (NH) length at the end of FY 2008-09 was 70,548 km that now stands at 1.46 lakh km as of December 2025. That means, a total of 76,024 km of national highways has been added in the length—more than the total expansion recorded between 1951 and 2008-09. In 1951, the length of national highways stood at 19,811 km.

In 2005-06, India had 66,590 km of National Highways, of which just 7,856 km were four-lane or above. Today, that figure stands at 48,421 km, a more than six-fold expansion. The analysis shows that 40,000 km of additional four-lane and above highways were added in less than two decades. The share of four-lane and above roads has increased from 12 per cent in 2005-06 to about 33 per cent in 2025-26 up to December.

In 2005-06, nearly nine out of every 10 kilometres of National Highways were two-lane or below. Today, one-third of the network is four-lane and above.

In total, India has added nearly 80,000 km of National Highways since 2005-06—from 66,590 km in 2005–06 to 1,46,572 km now.

Two-lane national highway roads continue to hold the biggest share, having doubled from 37,238 km in 2005-06 to 84,774 km in 2025-26 up to December. On the other hand, the length of roads below two lanes dropped from 21,496 km in 2005-06 to 13,000 km.

Over the years, India’s highway strategy has evolved from expanding connectivity to upgrading corridor capacity, moving from predominantly two-lane highways to multi-lane corridors and fully access-controlled expressways. The emphasis is no longer just on adding kilometres, but on increasing carrying capacity, reducing travel time and strengthening long-term logistics efficiency.

The Journey Towards Faster Road Building

Let’s first understand how the speed of road building has changed. India was building about 5,000 km to 6,000 km of national highways till 2015-16. Construction output doubled between 2014-15 and 2018-19, crossing the 10,000-km mark for the first time. Since then, annual construction has largely remained above that threshold.

In terms of daily average, post 2016-17, India has been building more than 20 km of national highway every day, up from below 15 km in the previous years.

In 2020-21, India touched 36.5 km per day, the fastest construction pace on record. This year, till December, the pace stood at 18 km per day. The pace is expected to improve in the last quarter of the financial year. Last month, News18 had reported that prolonged rainy season this time impacted road building.

Among the measures that have pushed the growth included the shifting to Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM). The model was approved in January 2016 to speed up the construction of national highways in the country by renewing interest of private developers in highway projects.

Under this, 40 per cent of the project cost is to be provided by the centre as construction support and the balance 60 per cent as annuity payments over the operations period along with interest to the concessionaire. The objective of this initiative was to maximise the quantum of implemented projects within the available financial resources of the government and to revive private sector participation in the sector.

Before HAM, several national highway projects were stuck due to financing stress. The introduction of HAM accelerated project awarding along with construction momentum.

To further improve revenue transparency, the ministry shifted to Electronic Toll Collection through FASTag gradually since 2017, significantly reduced leakages in toll collection. These measures helped stabilise project cash flows and restore private participation.

More funds with the ministry mean it can simultaneously execute multiple projects and packages and no delays due to payment delays or lack of funds. However, a lot of factors other than money also affect faster project completion, ranging from land acquisition, forest/wildlife clearances, railway/ other agency approvals, utility shifting, others.

The other factors that helped the ministry in speeding up road building included expansion of EPC contracting, large-scale mechanisation and digital project monitoring. These measures transformed highway building from a financially constrained process into a high-capacity, industrial-scale operation.

In 2012, the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure approved the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Agreement for construction of two-lane National Highways. Till then, the National Highways projects not viable on BOT/Annuity mode were taken up under traditional item-rate contracts, prone to time and cost overruns.

The EPC relies on assigning the responsibility for investigation, design and construction to the contractor for a lump sum price under a fixed time frame determined through competitive bidding.

Acquiring land for road building has been a major road block. But over the years, it was also simplified to speed up acquisition of land for national highway projects.

The Bharatmala Project, launched in 2017, pushed highway building to another level. With this, the roads were no longer fragmented projects but economic corridors were mapped with freight traffic in mind.

With more and more innovations, the entire road building sector has turned to mechanised construction and industrial-scale execution that has reduced manual dependency while maintaining better quality control and ensuring less rework, resulting in higher daily laying capacity.

The use of slipform pavers—specialised construction machines that continuously place, compact, and mould concrete for roads without fixed side forms—has significantly increased speed and efficiency when compared to manual levelling.

Mixing of road building materials in a precise ratio is a critical step. Wider adoption of automated batching plants improved consistency and scale. Earlier, the mixing of cement, aggregates, water and additives were done manually, resulting in inconsistent quality, frequent testing interruptions and higher rejection rates.

With Automatic batching plants—advanced, fully computerised systems designed for high-precision—large-scale production of consistent, high-quality concrete is possible. It allows digital weighing of materials, automated mixing cycles and quality monitoring in real time for faster material dispatch and continuous feeding of pavers.

GPS-enabled equipment, sensor-based rollers and digital project monitoring using drones have also pushed for faster issue resolution and reduced administrative lag.

Another series of changes introduced over the years included using locally available materials for road building, with special emphasis on recycling.

Since November 2015, the ministry made it mandatory for all national highways developers in the country to use waste plastic in road construction, along with bituminous. This improved the durability of bituminous roads.

Taken together, higher capital allocation, financing model reforms and industrial-scale mechanisation have transformed highway development from a slow, fragmented process into a programmatic, corridor-driven expansion strategy. The shift is not merely in kilometres built, but in the quality, capacity and economic role of India’s road network.

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