Union Budget 2018: Road Ministry likely to get 71,000 crore

New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), under road transport and highways ministry, has sought an allocation of Rs 71,000 crore from Finance Ministry through Central Road Fund (CRF) for the Budget 2018, as per Zee Media sources.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the Union Budget 2018-19 on February 1. It will be Modi government’s last full budget before Lok Sabha elections of 2019.

Sources also said that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has demanded Rs 95,000 crore from the Finance Ministry in the Budget.

The outlay for Revised Estimate (RE) 2017-18 is proposed to be reduced from BE 2016-17 outlay of Rs 64,900 crore to Rs 61,000 crore.

Terming roads, railways and rivers as the "lifeline of our country", FM Arun Jaitley had enhanced the allocation for highways sector by 12 percent.

In the road sector, Jaitley last year stepped up the Budget allocation for highways from Rs 57,976 crore in BE (budgetary estimate) 2016-17 to Rs 64,900 crore in 2017-18.

NHAI last month said that in FY 2017-18, it has completed 1,566 km length of the projects under implementation till November (5,060 km). The last five-year average constructed by NHAI is 2,175 km with 2,628 km constructed in FY 2016-17.

It added that work on 12 new projects covering 597 km has commenced while work on another 38 projects covering 1,969 km will start soon.

The authority is also gearing up to meet its target of completing Phase I of the recently approved 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' within the next five years, it said.