Apart from the highest-ever capex, the ministry also achieved the highest-ever private investment of Rs 34,805 crore during 2023-24. (Getty)
In the last financial year, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) was allocated Rs 2.64 lakh crore, the highest-ever, and it managed to spend 99.93 per cent of it
In what may be termed a first in the road ministry’s history, the actual capital expenditure, including that from private investment, in the financial year 2023-24 crossed Rs 3 lakh crore, data accessed by News18 shows.
The numbers suggest that in the last financial year, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) was allocated Rs 2.64 lakh crore, the highest-ever, and it managed to spend 99.93 per cent of it. It was the second time that the ministry managed to spend 99 per cent of the allocated budget. In 2022-23 too, the ministry managed to spend 99.18 per cent of the capex.
Apart from the highest-ever capex, the ministry also achieved the highest-ever private investment of Rs 34,805 crore during 2023-24. This was about 1.5 times the private investment generated in the year 2022-23 as well as 2018-19.
On the private investment side, the ministry has seen consistent increase, except the years 2020-21 and 2021-22 when coronavirus slowed down economies across the world. Since 2018-19, the private investment has been more than Rs 21,000 crore.
The data analysed by News18 shows that the ministry’s spending was nearly Rs 3 lakh crore in 2023-24, about 26 per cent more than the year 2022-23.
In the year 2022-23, the ministry’s actual capital expenditure was Rs 2.38 lakh crore and in the previous year, it was Rs 2.27 lakh crore. The numbers show that there has been a consistent rise in the ministry’s expenditure.
News18 had reported earlier that the ministry’s spending was on track as it used 84 per cent of the capex in the first nine months.
Since 2019-20, the ministry has received Rs 7.56 lakh crore as budgetary allocation and spent Rs 7.37 lakh crore.
Highest-ever asset monetisation
The ministry has raised a huge sum of Rs 38,334 crore through asset monetisation in the year 2023-24, about 1.6 times more from the previous year’s Rs 23,336 crore.
A major share of this amount was from monetisation of toll-operate-transfer bundles (Rs 15,968 crore) and through Infrastructure Investment Trust (Rs 15,700 crore). Another Rs 6,666 crore was project-based financing. These are the three different modes through which MoRTH monetises its assets.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was a major contributor in capital expenditure as well as asset monetisation.
The capital expenditure by NHAI in 2023-24 for development of national highway infrastructure reached an all-time high of Rs 2.07 lakh crore, 20 per cent more from the previous two years’ numbers.
