Title - Infrastructure projects lagging

H.A.C. Prasad, Senior Economic Advisor, Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi, provided an update on roads, railways, and ships. He said that from April to September 2012, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) widened or upgraded 958 km of highways, which was 28.5 per cent lower than the targeted 1,339 km for the period but 38.8 per cent higher than what was achieved during the same period in 2011.

While the government set a target of 20 km a day in 2012 for the construction of national highways, the pace of construction fell from 13.72 km a day in 2009-10 to 10.15 km in 2011-12.

From April to September 2012, railways carried 481.45 tonnes of goods traffic, which was 1.6 per cent lower than the target of 489.44 tonnes for the period, but was 4.8 per cent higher than what was achieved during the corresponding period of the previous year. From April to September 2012, the major ports handled 270.56 tonnes of cargo, which was 3.3 per cent lower than what was achieved during the corresponding period of the previous year.