•India's national highway budget surged from Rs 15,450 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 3.09 lakh crore for 2026-27, a nearly 20-fold increase.
•The four-lane and above national highway network expanded six-fold in two decades, adding 40,000 km, with total NH length doubling to 1.46 lakh km.
•Road building pace accelerated significantly, reaching a record 36.5 km per day in 2020-21, with an average of over 20 km per day since 2016-17.
•Key reforms like the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM), FASTag, and EPC contracting revived private participation and improved project execution.
•Large-scale mechanisation, including slipform pavers, automated batching plants, GPS-enabled equipment, and drone monitoring, transformed highway construction into an industrial-scale operation.
