National highways of India explained

The national highways in India are a network of limited access roads owned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. National highways have flyover access or some controlled-access, where entrance and exit is through the side of the flyover. At each highway intersection, flyovers are provided to bypass the traffic on the city, town, or village. These highways are designed for speeds of 100 km/h. Some national highways have interchanges in between, but do not have total controlled-access throughout the highways. The highways are constructed and managed by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), and the public works departments (PWD) of state governments. Currently, the longest national highway in India is National Highway 44 at 4,112 km (2,555 mi). India started four laning of major national highways with the National Highway Development Project (NHDP). As of March 2022 India has approximately 35,000 km of four laned National highways.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) are the nodal agencies responsible for building, upgrading, and maintaining most of the National Highways network. It operates under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) is a major effort to expand and upgrade the network of highways. NHAI often uses a public–private partnership model for highway maintenance, and toll-collection. NHIDCL uses Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) model to build, develop and maintain strategic roads in international borders of the country.

In India, National Highways are at-grade roads, whereas Expressways are controlled-access highways where entrance and exit is controlled by the use ramps that are incorporated into the design of the expressway. National Highways follows standards set by Indian Roads Congress and Bureau of Indian Standards.

Characteristics

India has 161350km (100,260miles) of national highways as of March 2022 compared to 1,01,011 km in FY 2013–14.[1] [2] [3] In July 2023, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said total length of the national highways in the country increased by about 59% in the last nine years.[1]

National highways constituted 2.7% of India's total road network, but carried about 40% of road traffic, as of 2013.[4] In 2016, the government vowed to double the highway length from 1,01,011 to 2,00,000 km.[5]

The majority of existing highways are now four-lane roads (two lanes in each direction), though much of this is being expanded to six or more lanes. Some sections of the network are toll roads. Only a few highways are built with concrete. Bypasses have been constructed around larger towns and cities to provide uninterrupted passage for highway traffic. Some existing roads have been reclassified as national highways.

History

The National Highways Act, 1956[6] provided for public i.e. state investment in the building and maintenance of the highways.

The National Highways Authority of India was established by the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988. Section 16(1) of the Act states that the function of NHAI is to develop, maintain, and manage the National Highways and any other highways vested in, or entrusted to, it by the Government of India.

In 1998 India launched a massive program of highway upgrades, called the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), in which the main north–south and east–west corridors and highways connecting the four metropolitan cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata) have been fully paved and widened into four-lane highways. Some of the busier National Highway sectors in India were also converted to four- or six-lane limited-access highways.

National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited started functioning as of 18 July 2014.[7] It is a fully owned company of Government of India under Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and was created to develop, maintain and manage the national highways, strategic roads and other infrastructure of India. It was dedicated to the task of promoting regional connectivity in parts of the country which share international boundaries. It is responsible for the development, maintenance and management of National Highways in hilly terrain of North-East part of India, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Uttarakhand. It works as a specialised agency in high altitude areas and border areas. Apart from highways, NHIDCL is constructing logictic hubs and transport related infrastructure e.g. multimodal transport hubs such as bus ports, container depots, automated multilevel car parking etc.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways adopted a new systematic numbering of National Highways in April 2010.[8] It is a systematic numbering scheme based on the orientation and the geographic location of the highway. The new system indicates the direction of National Highways whether they are east–west (odd numbers) or north–south (even numbers). It also indicates the geographical region where they are with even numbers increasing from east to west starting from NH2 and odd numbers increasing from north to south starting from NH1.[9]

Bharatmala, a centrally-sponsored and funded road and highways project of the Government of India with a target of constructing of new highways, was started in 2018. Phase I of the Bharatmala project involves the construction of 34,800 km of highways (including the remaining projects under NHDP) at an estimated cost of by 2021–22.[10]

Network length

National Highways in India, by state and union territories and maintaining agency[11] [12]
State / union territory State PWDNHAINHIDCL[13] Total length as on 31.03.2019 (km)
87331
6,912
1,0352,537
1,0103,909
5,358
15
3,605
31
22
157
293
6,635
3,166
3202,607
4362,423
3,367
7,335
1,782
0
8,772
17,757
1,7511,750
8231,156
3721422.5
3241,548
5,762
27
3,274
10,342
595463
6,742
3,795
Tripura573854
6602,949
11,737
43,664
India total 48,590[14] 7,990132,500[15]

Year wise national highways in India, by state and union territory

As at end-March and length in kms.

Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India.[16]

State/union territory 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011201220132014
Andaman and Nicobar Islands 300 300 300 300 300 300 300300 300 300
Andhra Pradesh 4472 4472447244724537453745374537 5022 6590
Arunachal Pradesh 392 392392392199219921992202720272027
Assam 2836 2836283628362836283628362940 2940 3634
Bihar 35373642364236423642364236424106 4168 4467
Chandigarh 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 242424
Chhattisgarh 2184 2184218421842184218421842289 2289 3031
Delhi 72 727272728080808080
Goa 269 269 269 269 269 269 269 269 269 269
Gujarat 2871 3245 324532453245324532454032 3828 4694
Haryana 1468 1512 151215121512151815181633 1633 2050
Himachal Pradesh 1208 1208120812081409140914091506 1506 2196
Jammu and Kashmir823 1245 124512451245124512451245 1695 2319
Jharkhand 1805 1805180518051805180518052170 2374 2968
Karnataka 3843 3843384338434396439643964396 4642 6177
Kerala 1440 1440144014571457145714571457 1457 1700
Madhya Pradesh 5200 4670 4670 4670 4670 5027 50275064 5116 5116
Maharashtra 4176 4176 4176 4176 4176 419141914257 4498 6249
Manipur 9599599599599599599591317 1317 1452
Meghalaya 810 810810810810810810117111711171
Mizoram 927 9279279279279279271027 1027 122
Nagaland 494 494494494494494494494 494 741
Odisha 3704 3704370437043704370437043704 4416 4550
Puducherry 53 535353535353535353
Punjab 1557 1557 1557 1557 1557 1557 15571557 1557 1699
Rajasthan 5585 5585558555855585558555857130 7180 7646
Sikkim 62 626262626262149149149
Tamil Nadu 4183 4462 44624462483248324832494349434975
Telangana . .........
Tripura 400 400400400400400400400 400 509
Uttar Pradesh 5599 5874 5874 5874 6774 6774 6774781878187986
Uttarakhand 1991 199119911991204220422042204220422282
West Bengal 2325 2377 2377 2524 2578 2578 2578268126812908
All India 65569 66590 66590 66754 70548 70934 709347681879116 91287

State-wise length of National Highways[17]

Note: Yearly data for 2018 and 2020 are not available.

State/union territory 20152016 2017 2019 2021202220232024
Andaman and Nicobar Islands 331331331331 331
Andhra Pradesh 4670 5465 6383 69127340
Arunachal Pradesh 2513 2513 2537 25372537
Assam 3784 3821 3845 39093936
Bihar 4701 4839 4839 53585421
Chandigarh 15 15 15 1515
Chhattisgarh 3079 3078 3523 36053620
Delhi 808079 157157
Goa 262 262 293 293299
Gujarat 4971 4971 5456 66357744
Haryana 2307 2622 2741 31663237
Himachal Pradesh 2466 2642 2643 26072607
Jammu and Kashmir2593 2601 2601 24232423
Jharkhand 2632 2654 2661 33673367
Karnataka 6432 6503 6991 73357412
Kerala 1811 1812 1782 17821782
Madhya Pradesh 5184 5194 8053 87728941
Maharashtra 7048 7435 16239 1775717931
Manipur 1746 1746 1746 17501750
Meghalaya 1204 1203 1204 11561156
Mizoram 1381 1381 1423 14231423
Nagaland 1080 1150 1547 15481548
Odisha 4645 4838 5413 57625897
Puducherry 64 64 64 2764
Punjab 2239 2769 3228 32744099
Rajasthan 7886 7906 8972 1034210350
Sikkim 309 463 463 463709
Tamil Nadu 5006 4946 5918 67426858
Telangana 2687 2696 3786 37953974
Tripura 577 805 854 854854
Uttar Pradesh 8483 8483 9017 1173711831
Uttarakhand 2842 2714 2842 29493106
West Bengal 2910 2956 3004 36643665
All India97991 101011 120493 132500136440

Funding

National Highways Authority of India has enough funds to increase the pace of road building. At the listing ceremony of the National Highways Infra Trust's (NHAI InVITs) non-convertible debentures, the National Highway Infra Trust issued and listed Non-Convertible Debentures or NCDs worth Rs 1,500 crore on the Bombay Stock Exchange, with a long-dated maturity of 25 years.[18]

NHAI collected tolls worth Rs 34,742 crore on national highways in FY22.[19] Additionally NHAI toll revenue will to soar to Rs 1.40 lakh crores in next three years.[20]

Future

Brownfield National Highway Projects is an upgradating/widening of existing four lane highways into six lane highways which are not controlled access highways.[21]

Trivia

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: India's road network grows 59% in last 9 years: Gadkari . 27 June 2023 .
  2. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/highways-construction-touches-record-37-km-per-day-gadkari/article34221788.ece NATIONALHighways construction touches record 37 km per day: Gadkari
  3. Web site: Construction of national highways at 10,331 km in 2022-23-MoRTH . 25 April 2023 .
  4. News: NDA regime constructed 50% of national highways laid in last 30 years: Centre . Dhananjay . Mahapatra . The Times of India . 2 July 2013 . 18 April 2015.
  5. News: National Highways road length to be increased from 1,01,011 km to 2,00,000 km: Nitin Gadkari. 17 December 2016. The Financial Express. 27 June 2017. en-US.
  6. Web site: The National Highways Act, 1956 . 2 December 2012 . 14 February 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120214191232/http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/Laws/The-National-Highways-Act-1956.htm . dead .
  7. News: NHIDCL Ministry of RT&H.
  8. Web site: Rationalisation of Numbering Systems of National Highways. Department of Road Transport and Highways. 2 September 2012. New Delhi. https://web.archive.org/web/20160816023220/http://dorth.gov.in/writereaddata/linkimages/9-6774713323.pdf. 16 August 2016. dead.
  9. News: New numbers for national highways . The Times of India . 21 October 2011 . 18 April 2015.
  10. Web site: Bharatmala Pariyojana - A Stepping Stone towards New India National Portal of India. www.india.gov.in. en. 2018-01-18.
  11. Web site: National Highways Summary - Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India. morth.nic.in. 21 August 2017.
  12. Web site: Welcome to NHAI. www.nhai.org. 21 August 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20130215043627/https://www.nhai.org/statewise1.asp. 15 February 2013. dead.
  13. Web site: 15 Feb 2017. Overview of All NHIDCL Projects. 19 Dec 2020. nhidcl.com.
  14. http://nhai.gov.in/writereaddata/Portal/Images/pdf/AnnualReport201516.pdf
  15. https://morth.nic.in/sites/default/files/Summary-of-NHs_1.pdf
  16. https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/Publications/PDFs/T_123FB5090B95B794F0EA160E4CA455E347F.PDF Table 123: State-wise Length of National Highways 2005 - 2019
  17. Web site: Reserve Bank of India - Publications .
  18. Web site: NHAI has enough cash to speed up road building: Gadkari at NCD listing event . 28 October 2022 .
  19. Web site: Toll worth Rs34,742 crore collected on national highways in FY22 .
  20. News: NHAI toll revenue to soar to Rs 1.40 lakh crores in three years: Nitin Gadkari . The Economic Times . 6 September 2022 . Mishra . Twesh .
  21. Web site: Brownfield National Highway Project | CEPT - Portfolio .
  22. "New numbers for national highways ". Maps of India.
  23. "List of highways in Karnatakaa". nhai.gov.in.
  24. "National Highway 536 ". India9.com.

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