India, Feb. 1 -- The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)'s outstanding liabilities were reduced to around Rs.2,84,521 crore in the current fiscal year from Rs.3,35,173 crore in 2023-24, the expenditure budget released on Saturday showed even though the budget speech by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made no mention of the highway sector.

The target for FY 25-26 has been kept at Rs.2,72,101 crore.

A NHAI official said that this is in line with NHAI's monetisation plan, and the debt reduction was primarily through National Highways Infra Trust (NHIT), the Infrastructure Investment Trust to shed high interest loans from commercial banks. The budgetary allocation for the whole of ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) f...