India FY25 new highway construction likely hit 7-year low as focus shifted to upgrades
Summary
- After years of rapid road expansion, India scaled back new highway construction in FY25, shifting focus to upgrading existing roads and building complex expressways.
NEW DELHI : India’s highway construction is expected to have slowed to a seven-year low of around 7,000 km in FY25, as the government prioritized maintenance, strengthening projects, and complex infrastructure over rapid expansion, according to two people familiar with the matter.
While the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has set an overall construction target of 10,000-10,500 km for the year, nearly 30%—or about 3,000 km—will be dedicated to strengthening existing roads rather than adding fresh highway capacity.
This marks a sharp shift from recent years, when expansion took precedence. The last time capacity-augmenting projects were this low was in FY18, when total construction also fell below 10,000 km.
“The reduced share of capacity-augmenting projects is likely to continue in FY26 as well, with overall highway construction target remaining closer to FY25 levels," said one of the people cited earlier.
However, this should not be seen as a slowdown in highway construction, but a shift in priorities, as the government undertakes more complex projects such as higher-lane highways and access-controlled expressways, the person emphasized.
Query sent to MoRTH remained unanswered till press time.
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Highway projects fall into two broad categories: capacity augmentation, which adds new roads or lanes, and strengthening projects, which rehabilitate and upgrade existing roads without expanding capacity. While both enhance infrastructure quality, capacity augmentation is a stronger indicator of network growth.
MoRTH data shows that of the 12,349 km of highways built in FY24, 2,708 km consisted of strengthening projects, while 5,193 km involved complex, high-lane expressways. Despite this, FY24 saw a record-breaking 9,500 km of new highway capacity added—the highest level even compared to the post-pandemic construction boom in FY21, when total highway construction peaked at 13,327 km.
According to government data, highway strengthening projects have fluctuated over the years—rising from 862 km in FY20 to a peak of 4,907 km in FY21, before tapering off to 2,152 km in FY23 and rising again to 2,708 km in FY24. Meanwhile, total highway construction has stayed within the 10,000-12,000 km range since FY19.
This trend underscores the government’s evolving approach: balancing new highway development with maintenance and modernization.
Industry experts say the choice between expansion and strengthening depends largely on traffic demand.
"If traffic is relatively low then strengthening works, but if traffic levels are high then lane expansion/augmentation may be required. However, for road users, in both cases, there is a tangible and almost similar benefit," said Kuljit Singh, partner and leader, infrastructure, EY India.
Government officials expect overall highway construction to hover around 12,000 km annually over the next decade before tapering off as major network expansions are completed. By then, the focus will likely shift towards long-term maintenance rather than large-scale new road construction.
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Under its Vision 2047 plan, MoRTH aims to construct 50,000 km of access-controlled highways, primarily 4- to 8-lane expressways. While this will increase total lane kilometres, the annual addition of linear kilometres—a key measure of network expansion—will slow compared to the post-pandemic peak of 10,000+ km per year.
As of January, 7,000 km of highways had been constructed, slightly behind the 7,658 km completed during the same period last year.
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