NHAI exceeds FY26 highway build target by 15% at 5,313 km; capex rises to ₹2.44 lakh crore

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has closed FY2025-26 on a strong note, surpassing its annual construction target and marginally exceeding budgeted capital spending, reflecting sustained momentum in highway development.

NHAI constructed 5,313 km of national highways during the financial year, about 15% higher than the target of 4,640 km, according to data released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The outperformance underscores steady execution despite the rising complexity and scale of road projects.

Capital expenditure by the highways authority stood at ₹2,44,362 crore in FY26, around 2.5% higher than the government’s budgetary support of ₹2,38,384 crore. Notably, NHAI bridged the ₹5,978 crore gap through its own resources, indicating a growing ability to supplement public funding with internal accruals and market-linked financing.

Scale, pace and funding mix in focus

The FY26 construction figure translates to an average build pace of roughly 14.5 km per day, broadly in line with recent years, even as project sizes become larger and more corridor-driven. This comes after a peak pace of over 30 km per day during the accelerated build-out phase earlier in the decade, highlighting a shift towards more complex, access-controlled highways and expressways.

At the same time, NHAI’s cumulative capital expenditure over the past five years has crossed ₹10 lakh crore, underlining the scale of investments being channelled into the sector. Budgetary allocations have remained strong, but the increasing reliance on extra-budgetary resources is evident. The ₹5,978 crore mobilised internally in FY26 adds to a broader trend where NHAI has been tapping toll securitisation, infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) and toll-operate-transfer (TOT) routes to unlock value.

Network expansion and asset base

India’s national highway network has expanded from about 91,000 km in 2014 to over 1.46 lakh km in recent years, a growth of more than 60%. The share of high-capacity corridors—four lanes and above—has also more than doubled during this period, improving freight efficiency on key economic routes.

This expanding asset base has, in turn, enabled monetisation at scale. NHAI has already raised over ₹1.5 lakh crore through asset recycling programmes in recent years, creating a pipeline for reinvestment into new stretches.