Nearly Rs 1.48 lakh crore for highways will come from the Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF) in the next fiscal against Rs 89,000 crore in the ongoing financial year, as per Budget documents.
Rs 1.99 lakh crore has been proposed to be allocated for the road transport and highway ministry in the Union Budget, out of which, Rs 1.34 lakh crore will be allocated to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The NHAI is primarily responsible for developing NHs (with more than four lanes) and expressways across the country.
The government has proposed to provide Rs 1.01 lakh crore to NHAI from the CRIF for 2022-23, which is 254% more than what the highway authority got from this fund in the revised estimate of the current financial year. “We have also provisioned for raising another Rs 25,000 crore through innovative financing such as InvITs and securitisation of the future toll as it has been done for Delhi-Mumbai expressway project. So, overall NHAI will have Rs 1.6 lakh crore for the next financial year to meet its requirement,” an official said.
Meanwhile, the entire funding of Jal Jeevan Mission and the rural component of the Swachh Bharat Mission will be done be from fuel cess.
The government has proposed to increase the allocation for Jal Jeevan Mission to Rs 60,000 crore for 2022-23 from Rs 45,000 crore in FY22. As per data, like 2020-21 and the current year, the entire funding will come from the CRIF. The entire funding of Rs 7,192 crore for the rural component of the Swachh Bharat Mission under the Jal Shakti ministry will come from the CRIF.
