MoRTH Tightens DPR Consultant Ratings Amid Delayed Highway Construction

Building highways takes a long time, and one reason is that the plans made before construction starts are often not very good.

The government ministry in charge of roads, MoRTH, is now grading the companies that write these plans more carefully.

These detailed plans are called DPRs, and good ones help roads get built on time.

Because the plans were weak, the number of highway contracts being awarded has dropped a lot.

In 2022-23, over 12,000 kilometers of highway contracts were given out.

By FY26, that number fell to about 7,000 kilometers, which is the lowest in seven years.

The amount of highway actually built has also gone down.

Many projects have been delayed by more than three years.

The number of delayed projects has shrunk from 154 to about 80.

MoRTH hopes that stricter checks on plan makers will lead to faster and better highway construction.