According to the Economic Survey 2022-23, the National Highways Infra Trust (NHAI InvIT) has raised more than Rs 10,200 crore from high-quality foreign and Indian institutional investors through December 2022.
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has established an infrastructure investment trust to support the Union Government's National Monetization Pipeline (NMP). It was established in November 2021 to facilitate road monetisation and to attract foreign and domestic institutional investors to the road sector.
“Increase in infrastructure investment provides a critical push to the potential growth of the economy. The government, in recent years, provided an increased impetus for infrastructure development and investment through the enhancement of capital expenditure. This push has happened at a time of crisis when the capital expenditure by the private sector has been subdued,” the survey read.
Based on the Economic Survey 2022-23, the outlay for capital expenditure in 2022-23 (BE) increased by 35.4% from Rs 5.5 lakh crore in the previous year (2021-22) to Rs 7.5 lakh crore, with approximately 67% spent from April to December 2022.
According to the survey report, road infrastructure, which includes a network of national highways, state highways, district roads, rural roads, and urban roads, serves as a major mode of transportation and connectivity for the country's diverse population of consumers and businesses.
“Roads supplement the other modes of transport through last-mile connectivity to the far-flung regions of the country. There has been an increase in the construction of National Highways (NHs)/roads over time, with 10,457 km of roads constructed in FY22 as compared to 6,061 km in FY16,” it said.