Who Built More Highways? NDA or UPA?

There have been charges and counter-charges between the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA about the progress (or lack of it) of road projects during the last few years. While BJP claims that road building has come to a virtual stand-still under the UPA, the Congress is countering that more projects are being executed under their regime. Here is a quick fact check on only one aspect – national highways - of the 3.3 million kms road network in the country. As the table below shows, the national highways network increased from 49,585 kms in 1999 to 65,569 kms in 2004 – an increase of 15,984 kms during the NDA regime which lasted five years. And the NH network under the UPA increased from 65,569 kms to 79,243 kms as of today – an increase of 13,674 kms from 2004, which is nine years.

Year	National Highways (in Kms)	Per day increase* (in Kms)
NDA
1999	49,585
2000	52,010	8.1
2001	57,737	19.1
2002	58,112	1.25
2003	58,112	0#
2004	65,569	24.8
UPA
2005	65,569	0#
2006	66,590	3.4
2007	66,590	0#
2008	66,754	0.5
2009	70,548	12.6
2010	70,934	1.2
2011	70,934	0#
2012-2013	79,243	27.6

* Per day increase is calculated using = (New year road built - Previous year Road Built / no.of working days in a Year)(Source: NHAI; Ministry of Road Transport & Highways) # refers to the fact that the road built might not have been reported.