In December, road construction hit a record 31.87km a day

New Delhi: Construction of national highways gathered pace to touch a record average of 31.87km per day in December, but was still far from the minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari’s target of building 41km per day.

“In December, the highway construction under the road transport and highways ministry was 956km, giving an all-time high average of 31.87km per day of road construction. At the current pace, we are hopeful of meeting this fiscal year’s road construction target of 12,000km,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity.

However, the average for the first three quarters of the current fiscal year remained at about 25km per day, the official added. According to the latest road ministry data, between April and December 5,800-5,900km of national highway was construction.

Gadkari had fixed a construction target of around 16,420km for 2018-19.

Last fiscal year, 9,829km of national highways were constructed.