NHAI plans to bid out projects worth 3.4 lakh crore

NEW DELHI: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to bid out 124 highways and expressway projects worth Rs 3.4 lakh crore in current financial year (2025-26). NHAI has put the entire list of projects in public domain, amid a sense of uncertainty among the highway developers.In last two years, there has been a slowdown in award (bidding out) of projects by NHAI, after the halt of govt’s flagship Bharatmala programme for highway development. While NHAI bid out projects of 6,003 km in 2022-23, this has slowed down to 3,339 km in 2023-24 and increased marginally to 4,008 km in 2024-25. Govt’s decision to open bids only after 90% availability of land has been one of the reasons behind slowing down of projects.A senior NHAI official said the objective behind putting the list of the projects in public domain is to make the highway developers aware about them and prepare themselves. He accepted that slowdown in award of projects in past two years has been a matter of concern, which has created some sense of uncertainty among highway builders.This time, Nearly 78% of projects will be offered under public private partnership (PPP) mode, including development of 476 km of Gorakhpur-Kishangan-Siliguri highway, costing around Rs 35,000 crore, Patna-Purnea stretch (282 km) with estimated cost of Rs 17,076 crore and two packages of Nashik-Ahmednagar highway, with length of 374 km, entailing an investment of little over Rs 19,000 crore. Rest of the projects will be awarded under fully govt-funded mode.