Transport

Table of Contents

Roads in India

India has the second largest road network in the world about 62.16 lakh km after the United States.
This comprises National Highways, Expressways, State Highways, Major District Roads, Other District Roads, and Village Roads.
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways was formed in 2009 by bifurcating the erstwhile Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport, and Highways into two independent Ministries, i.e., Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and Ministry of Shipping.
At (1.94 km, 1.21 mi) of roads per square kilometer of land, the quantitative density of India’s road network is equal to that of Hong Kong and substantially higher than the United States (0.71 km), China (0.54 km), Brazil (0.23 km) and Russia (0.09 km).
India has approximately 5.13 kilometers (3.19 mi) of roads per 1,000 people, which is much lower than the United States’ 20.5 kilometers (12.7 mi) but higher than that China’s 3.6 kilometers (2.2 mi). India’s road network carries over 71 percent of its freight and about 85 percent of passenger traffic.

The National highways are roads owned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
It is 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.
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.
In India, National Highways are at-grade roads, whereas Expressways are controlled-access highways where entrance and exit are controlled by the use of ramps that are incorporated into the design of the expressway.
National Highways follows standards set by the Indian Roads Congress and Bureau of Indian Standards.
Currently, the longest National Highway in India is National Highway 44 at 4,112 km.

State highways are maintained by the state governments.
These roads are constructed and managed by the state’s Public Works Department.
As of 31 March 2016, the total length of state highways was 176,166 km.

Currently, the longest expressway in India is the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway (Phase-I) at 520 km (320 mi) and the widest expressway is the Delhi – Dasna (UP border) section of the Delhi–Meerut Expressway with 14 lanes.

Indian Roads Congress is the premier technical body of highway engineers that holds periodic conferences to discuss road construction, maintenance & development issues.