Quick Take
- Nitin Gadkari has held the road transport and highways portfolio since May 2014, and took charge of it again on June 12, 2024.
- His ministry reports 1,06,747 km of national highway built from 2014-15 to 2024-25. The network itself grew by 55,273 km.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General put Bharatmala Phase-I at Rs 32.17 crore a km against an approved Rs 15.37 crore a km.
Nitin Gadkari’s ministry built 1,06,747 km of national highway across India between 2014-15 and 2024-25.
Peoples Feed added those figures year by year. The Gadkari national highways count comes from the ministry’s Year End Review, issued on December 30, 2025.
The network itself grew by less. It stood at 91,287 km in 2014 and 1,46,560 km in December 2025, a rise of 55,273 km. Widening an existing road counts as construction too.
Building has slowed. The peak year was 2020-21, at 13,327 km. In 2024-25 the ministry built 10,660 km, which is 20% below that peak.
Road deaths moved the other way. The ministry’s Road Accidents in India 2023 report counts 1,72,890 people killed, up 2.6% on 2022.
What the Gadkari national highways figures show
The Gadkari national highways figures show a network 61% larger than in 2014 and a building rate that peaked five years ago.
The Press Information Bureau put the network at 1,46,560 km on December 30, 2025. In 2014 it was 91,287 km.
Pace tells a second story. The ministry’s Annual Report 2024-25 records 12.1 km a day in 2014-15. Peoples Feed’s arithmetic puts 2024-25 at 29.2 km a day.
Four-laning grew faster than the network. PRS Legislative Research counts 18,278 km of four-lane national highway in 2014 and 45,947 km in 2024.
The eleven-year table is uneven. Its four biggest years, in order, were 2020-21, 2023-24, 2018-19 and 2024-25. Building in the first eight months of 2025-26 came to 4,612 km.
How the money was raised and spent
PRS Legislative Research puts the road ministry’s 2026-27 budget at Rs 3,09,875 crore. That is 7.9% above the revised Rs 2,87,142 crore for 2025-26.
The National Highways Authority of India takes the larger share, and PRS puts its 2026-27 allocation at Rs 1,87,293 crore.
Spending has lagged the allocation. The ministry’s Annual Report 2024-25 shows Rs 2,25,051 crore spent by December 31, 2024, against Rs 2,84,000 crore allotted. That is 82.67%.
Borrowing built much of it. NHAI’s outstanding debt peaked at Rs 3.48 lakh crore in 2021-22, PRS records, and stood at Rs 2,39,818 crore in November 2025.
In the Lok Sabha on July 25, 2024, Nitin Gadkari gave his own figure. NHAI debt then stood at Rs 3,35,173.38 crore for 2023-24.
Selling finished road raised more. The ministry reported Rs 1,52,028 crore from asset monetisation up to November 2025.
Land got dearer. PRS cites Committee on Estimates figures showing compensation rise from about Rs 80 lakh a hectare before 2015 to Rs 3.6 crore a hectare.
The record, verified
Every date in this profile rests on a government document, and the table below lists the ones Peoples Feed opened.
Every construction figure comes from one source. The Press Information Bureau’s Year End Review of December 30, 2025 lists each financial year from 2014-15 onward.
Two dates anchor the tenure. A PIB release of May 29, 2014 records him taking charge of road transport, highways and shipping. Another, dated June 12, 2024, records him taking the road portfolio again.
PRS Legislative Research lists Nitin Gadkari as the Bharatiya Janata Party member for Nagpur in Maharashtra, in a third term that began on June 9, 2024.
His ministers of state are Ajay Tamta and Harsh Malhotra. Both took charge on the same day in 2024.
Ministry releases carry the designation used here. A PIB release of June 25, 2026 names him Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways.
| Date | What happened | Source document |
|---|---|---|
| May 29, 2014 | Took charge of road transport, highways and shipping | PIB release, May 29, 2014 |
| June 12, 2024 | Took charge as Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways | PIB release, June 12, 2024 |
| July 25, 2024 | Told the Lok Sabha NHAI debt was Rs 3,35,173.38 crore in 2023-24 | PIB, Lok Sabha reply, July 25, 2024 |
| August 15, 2025 | NHAI launched the FASTag Annual Pass at Rs 3,000 | PIB release, March 15, 2026 |
| December 17, 2025 | Told the Rajya Sabha number-plate tolling would replace booths by end-2026 | Akashvani bulletin, December 17, 2025 |
| December 30, 2025 | Ministry reported the network at 1,46,560 km, up 61% on 2014 | PIB Year End Review 2025 |
| March 15, 2026 | Annual Pass fee revised to Rs 3,075 from April 1, 2026 | PIB release, March 15, 2026 |
| June 25, 2026 | Reviewed 4,931 km in Telangana, 2,035 km in J&K, 804 km in Ladakh | PIB release, June 25, 2026 |
What is contested: the CAG’s cost findings
The sharpest published criticism of Nitin Gadkari’s highway programme is a Comptroller and Auditor General audit of Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I.
CAG Report No. 19 of 2023 sets out the gap. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved 34,800 km for Rs 5,35,000 crore, or Rs 15.37 crore a km.
By March 31, 2023 the position had changed. NHAI had awarded 26,316 km at a sanctioned cost of Rs 8,46,588 crore, which works out to Rs 32.17 crore a km.
Completion lagged further. The audit puts finished length at 13,499 km, or 38.79% of the approved 34,800 km.
One road carries the sharpest figure. The audit costs Dwarka Expressway at Rs 7,287.29 crore for 29.06 km, or Rs 250.77 crore a km, against an approved Rs 18.20 crore a km.
The ministry answered on August 14, 2023. It said the road is an eight-lane expressway on a single pier, with India’s first four-level interchange and an eight-lane tunnel.
Cost varies with the job, the ministry said. It put the average for special Bharatmala projects at Rs 152 crore a km.
Deadlines moved too. PRS records the Bharatmala target shifting from 2022 to 2027-28, with 189 projects held up by land acquisition and 64 by environmental clearance.
Road deaths rose while the network grew
The road ministry’s own count shows road deaths rising in India while the national highway network grew.
The 2023 report counts 1,72,890 people killed, 4,80,583 accidents and 4,62,825 injured. Each figure sits above the 2022 level.
Set against 2022, the rise is exact. That year the ministry counted 1,68,491 killed and 4,61,312 accidents, so deaths rose 2.6% and accidents 4.2%.
National highways carry a share far above their length. They are 2.1% of India’s road network and 36.5% of its road deaths, at 63,112 people killed in 2023.
That figure is not only an audit number. At a New Delhi press conference on January 8, 2025, Nitin Gadkari put 2024 road deaths at about 1.80 lakh.
He gave three more at the same event. Nearly 30,000 died without helmets, 66% of the dead were aged 18 to 34, and about 10,000 were children killed near school and college gates.
What happens next
The next dated change is tolling. In the Rajya Sabha on December 17, 2025, Nitin Gadkari said number-plate recognition would replace toll booths across the country by the end of 2026.
He gave two figures for it. The switch should save fuel worth Rs 1,500 crore and add Rs 6,000 crore to government revenue.
A cheaper option already runs. NHAI launched the FASTag Annual Pass on August 15, 2025 at Rs 3,000, valid for a year or 200 toll crossings.
That price has moved once. PIB said on March 15, 2026 that the fee rises to Rs 3,075 from April 1, 2026. More than 56 lakh people hold one, across about 1,150 fee plazas.
Site work continues. On June 25, 2026 Nitin Gadkari reviewed 4,931 km of projects in Telangana, 2,035 km in Jammu and Kashmir and 804 km in Ladakh.
One document is still due. The ministry has not yet published Road Accidents in India 2024, which will test the 1.80 lakh figure Nitin Gadkari gave in January 2025.
What this means for you: If you drive a national highway or hold a FASTag, these audit and accident numbers decide what your toll actually buys. Nitin Gadkari told the Rajya Sabha that camera tolling replaces booths by end-2026, so check your FASTag and number plate match.
Peoples Feed Insight
Two numbers in this record move in opposite directions, and only one of them gets quoted. The network grew 61%. Annual building fell 20% from its 2020-21 peak, and the government’s own auditor put Bharatmala Phase-I at twice the approved cost a km. Watch one date. Road Accidents in India 2024 is still due from the road ministry. If that report confirms the 1.80 lakh deaths announced on January 8, 2025, the arithmetic changes. Eleven years of highway building will then sit alongside the worst road-fatality year India has recorded. That is the number to hold this ministry to, not the kilometre count.
By Avinash Mishra, Governance Correspondent
About Nitin Gadkari
Nitin Jairam Gadkari is India’s Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways. He has held the portfolio since May 2014 and took charge of it again on June 12, 2024. A Bharatiya Janata Party member of the Lok Sabha for Nagpur in Maharashtra, Gadkari is in a third term. His ministry reported the national highway network at 1,46,560 km on December 30, 2025.
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