More than half the highways sanctioned in FY25 are in NDA allies-ruled states

Impending state elections and the imperatives of coalition politics seem to be influencing some critical infrastructure development programmes, with the highway National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) planning most of its investments and projects in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar—states that are ruled by NDA allies Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United) respectively.

The state-run agency is also planning a significantly large number of projects in poll-bound Maharashtra while maintaining higher investments and projects in the politically important state of Uttar Pradesh that already boasts of numerous highways and access-controlled expressways.

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The highway development programme of NHAI has been divided into two types this year— category 1 and category 2. These schemes largely focus on maintenance and upgrade of existing or ‘original highways’, including adding more lanes and creating bypasses along points that face heavy traffic congestion or load.

While category 1 involves minor repairs and upgrades, projects under category 2 involve taking up larger upgrades and modernization including measures to improve safety and security of vehicles.

According to a ministry of road transport and highways (Morth) office memorandum seen by Mint, the approved sanctioned investment ceiling for work on building category 1 national highways by the NHAI is ₹71,112 crore for 2024-25.

Out of this, poll-bound Maharashtra gets the highest amount of ₹19,023 crore. States ruled by all-important NDA allies Andhra Pradesh and Bihar get an allocation of ₹7,266 crore and ₹10,720 crore respectively.

Of the others among India's 28 states, only Uttar Pradesh will get anything like this level of investment, at ₹7,860 crore by the NHAI in FY25. The remainder will have to do with a lot less investment—which means less work on highway development.

Lion's share for Bihar

For category 2 highway development projects, out of a total investment ceiling of ₹73,280 crore for the NHAI this fiscal year, the lion's share has been set aside for Bihar at ₹9,315 crore. To be sure, other Opposition-ruled states such as Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have also got a higher share of NHAI investments during the year in this category. While Karnataka will get investments of ₹11,963 crore, Tamil Nadu’s share will be ₹9,640 crore and Telangana’s share will be ₹5,650 crore.

Out of 79 projects sanctioned for the year, 24 are in just three states – Bihar, AP and Maharashtra.

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The total investment under the two schemes is pegged at more than ₹1.4 trillion for FY25. This involves around 79 projects to be taken up by NHAI in the year, including 10 large projects in Bihar, seven in Andhra Pradesh and six in Maharashtra involving construction and upgradation of around 700 km of highways in total.

Queries sent to the MoRTH that also administers the activities of NHAI remained unanswered till press time.

Funding infrastructure

“The Union Budget 2024-25 has allocated significant funds for infrastructure projects in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. Both these states are governed by NDA allies and though it may seem like a political wile but it stems together with the overall plan of the government - Purvodaya to develop the eastern region. This will give a fresh impetus to the development of these regions to enhance the logistics potential vide the 3 road connectivity projects and pilgrimage at Bodhgaya," said Ashish Suman, partner, JSA Advocates & Solicitors.

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“Even for Andhra the highway needs are increasing given the potential the state holds for foreign investment and interstate logistics requirements," he added.

Another expert said that concentrating highway development in a few states is not a positive sign for balanced national development as it may lead to several negative issues leading to regional imbalances, reduced potential to contribute to economic growth and suboptimal use of resources.

The expert requested anonymity due to the organization’s direct links with NHAI.

Total fund allocation for NHAI works in FY 25 stands at ₹1,44,392 crore while the share of funds for four states stands at ₹57,185 crore that for the rest of the country is ₹87,207 crore.

Bihar, AP, Maharashtra and UP not only account for the highest investment allocation for building highways that also lead the pack in terms of number of kilometres of work to be done for highways projects. Out of the total projected 2,487 km of projects to be undertaken in FY25, these four states account for 885 km of work.

The size of the projects and investments is much lower in other states like in Delhi only one project of 5 km will be undertaken with an investment of ₹2,945 crore. Similarly, the investment in Gujarat will be just over ₹2000 crore for 2 projects of 50 km length. The investment in Madhya Pradesh would be over ₹4000 crore but it will impact just 160 km of highways divided into 5 projects. Nhai will be undertaking just one project in Rajasthan this year with about ₹2000 crore investment while only 1 project of 9 km length will be undertaken in West Bengal with an investment of about ₹1250 crore.