How India is rapidly expanding its massive national highway network
In short: In 2013, India's national highways carried 40% of road traffic despite making up only 2.7% of the total network. Today, that infrastructure is undergoing a massive transformation, with construction speeds hitting record highs and the total network length growing by approximately 59% over the last nine years.
Agencies such as the NHIDCL and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) manage India's national highway network on behalf of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. While many highways are at-grade roads, the network also includes expressways, which are controlled-access highways utilizing ramps for entry and exit. To manage heavy traffic, flyovers are often provided at intersections to bypass towns and villages.
A significant driver of expansion has been the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), launched in 1998 to pave and widen corridors connecting major metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. More recently, the Bharatmala project, started in 2018, aimed to construct 83,677 km of new highways. By 2021–22, this massive project aimed to complete 34,800 km in Phase I, costing roughly ₹5.35 lakh crore (US$56 billion).
Construction activities are rapidly increasing in scale. In 2014, the average construction speed was 12.1 km/day, but by 2020-21, it reached a record 37 km per day. This expansion has seen the total length of national highways grow from 101,011 km in FY 2013–14 to approximately 161,350 km by March 2022. The longest route in this network is National Highway 44, stretching 4,112 km from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.
The system also uses a geographic numbering scheme adopted in April 2010. Even numbers represent north–south routes, increasing from east to west starting from NH2, while odd numbers represent east–west routes, increasing from north to south starting from NH1.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: National highways of India
- Also: Wikidata — national highways of India · CC0
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