The ministry of road transport and highways has built 7,211km of national highways till February, well short of its 10,000km target for the current financial year, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.. Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari speaks in the Rajya Sabha. (PTI). The average pace has dropped to 21.5km per day, down from 29.21km per day in 2024-25 and 33.83km per day in 2023-24. The highest expansion — 13,327km — was recorded in 2020-21, also at an average of 33.83km per day.. Gadkari presented the data while replying to a question by BRS MP Vaddiraju Ravichandra. In the same response, Gadkari said 660 under-construction National Highway projects have overshot their original completion timelines. This excludes projects currently under consideration for termination or foreclosure. The highest number of delayed projects is in Maharashtra (62), followed by Andhra Pradesh (50) and Uttar Pradesh (48).. Responding to a separate question from AAP MP Ashok Kumar Mittal, Gadkari said the average time taken by a vehicle to cross a toll plaza under electronic toll operations is around 40 seconds, compared to 12.23 minutes under the earlier manual system. This marks a substantial improvement in traffic flow and reduced congestion, based on an impact assessment of the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) Programme for 2024–25.
