2. INTRODUCTION
India has a road network of over
4,689,842 kilometres (2,914,133 mi) in
2013, the second largest road network in
the world.
At 0.66 km of roads per square kilometre
of land, the quantitative density of India's
road network is similar to that of the
United States (0.65) and far higher than
that of China (0.16) or Brazil (0.20).
3. The roads are primarily made of bitumen,
with some Indian National Highways
having concrete roads.
The concept of expressway roads is also
catching up in India, and the Mumbai-Pune
expressway and Delhi Gurgaon
expressway are the finest examples
4. HISTORY
The first evidence of road development in
the Indian subcontinent can be traced back
to approximately 2800 BC from the ancient
cities of Harrapa and Mohenjodaro of the
IndusValley Civilization.
The Grand Trunk Road was built by Sher
Shah Suri in 1540-45 connecting Sonargaon
near Dhaka in Bangladesh with Peshawar in
modern-day Pakistan linking several cities
from in India.
5. India inherited a poor road network
infrastructure at the time of its
independence in 1947. Beyond that,
between 1947 and 1988, India witnessed
no new major projects, and the roads
were poorly maintained. Predominantly all
roads were single lane, and most were
unpaved. India had no expressways, and
less than 200 kilometers of 4-lane
highways.
6. In 1988, an autonomous entity called the
National Highways Authority of India was
established in India by an Act of
Parliament, and came into existence on 15
June 1989
7. OVERVIEW
Road transport is vital to India's economy.
It enables the country's transportation
sector to contribute 4.7 percent towards
India’s gross domestic product, in
comparison to railways that contributed 1
percent, in 2009–2010.
India's road network carries over 65
percent of its freight and about 85
percent of passenger traffic.
8. Indian road network is administered by
various government authorities, given India's
federal form of government.The table below
describes the regulating bodies.
Road
classification
Authority responsible Total kilometres (as
of 2011)
National
Highways
Ministry of RoadTransport &
Highways (Central
government)
92,851
State Highways State governments (state's
public works department)
1,63,898
Major and other
district roads
Local governments, panchayats
and municipalities
17,05,706
Rural roads Local governments, panchayats
and municipalities
27,49,805
9. NATIONAL HIGHWAYS IN INDIA
The National Highways are the principal
highways moving across the length and
breadth of the nation, joining important
harbours, big commercial and tourism hubs,
state capitals, and so on.
National Highways in the country are
represented as NH and then the highway
number comes after it.
The national highway network in India is
supervised by the Ministry of State for
SurfaceTransport.
10. The public works departments of various
states look after the state roads and state
highways.
The state and union governments have
common responsibilities for constructing
thoroughfares and sustaining the
roadways in the country.
Indian national highways are further
classified based on the width of
carriageway of the highway.
11. As of March 2012, India had completed and
placed in use the following newly built
highways:
5,846 kilometers of its 4-lane Golden
Quadrilateral highway,
6,310 kilometres of its 4-lane North–South
and East–West Corridor highway,
353 kilometres of 4-lane port connectivity
highways,
4,553 kilometres of 4-lane inter-capital
highways,
961 kilometres of 4-lane bypass and other
national highways.
13. EXPRESSWAYS
Expressways make up approximately
1,208 km (751 mi) of India's road network,
as of 2013.
These high-speed roads are four-lane or six-
lane, predominantly access controlled
The 165 kilometerYamuna Expressway,
India's longest six-laned controlled-access
opened on 9 August 2012.
The government has drawn up a target to
lay 18,637 kilometre network of brand new
expressways by 2022
14. Name Distance State(s)
AhmedabadVadodara Expressway[3] 95 km (59.0 mi) Gujarat
Allahabad Bypass Expressway[4] 86 km (53.4 mi) Uttar Pradesh
Ambala Chandigarh Expressway[5] 35 km (21.7 mi) Punjab, Haryana
Belghoria Expressway[6] 8 km (5.0 mi) West Bengal
Chennai Bypass[7] 32 km (19.9 mi) Tamil Nadu
Chennai HSCTC[8] 107 km (66.5 mi) Tamil Nadu
Coimbatore Bypass[9] 28 km (17.4 mi) Tamil Nadu
Delhi Faridabad Skyway[11][12] 4.4 km (2.7 mi) National Capital Region
Delhi Noida Direct Flyway[13] 9.2 km (5.7 mi) National Capital Region
Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway[10] 27.7 km (17.2 mi) National Capital Region
Durgapur Expressway[14][15] 65 km (40.4 mi) West Bengal
Hosur Road Elevated Expressway[19] 9.9 km (6.2 mi) Karnataka
Hyderabad Elevated
Expressways[20][21] 11.6 km (7.2 mi) Telangana
Hyderabad ORR[23] 158 km (98.2 mi) Telangana
Jaipur Elevated Road[24] 8 km (5.0 mi) Rajasthan
Jaipur-Kishangarh Expressway[25] 90 km (55.9 mi) Rajasthan
Kona Expressway[26] 8 km (5.0 mi) West Bengal
Mumbai Eastern Freeway[16][17][18] 16.8 km (10.44 mi) Maharashtra
Mumbai Pune Expressway[22] 94.5 km (58.7 mi) Maharashtra
Noida-Greater Noida Expressway[27] 24.5 km (15.2 mi) Uttar Pradesh
Panipat Elevated Expressway[28] 10 km (6.2 mi) Haryana
Raipur-Bhilai-Durg Expressway[29] 26 km (16.2 mi) Chhattisgarh
Yamuna Expressway[30][31] 165 km (102.5 mi) Uttar Pradesh
LIST OF EXPRESSWAYS
15. Name Distance State
Agra-Lucknow Expressway[32] 301 km (187.0 mi) Uttar Pradesh
Amaravathi Outer Ring road[33] 220 km (136.7 mi) Andhra Pradesh
Biju Expressway[34] 650 km (403.9 mi) Odisha
Bamroli-Althan Expressway[35] 12 km (7.5 mi) Gujarat
Bangalore-Chennai Expressway[36] 240 km (149.1 mi) Karnataka,Tamil Nadu
Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure
Corridor[37] 111 km (69.0 mi) Karnataka
Chennai Elevated Expressways[38] Tamil Nadu
Chennai ORR[39] 62.3 km (38.7 mi) Tamil Nadu
Chennai Port-Maduravoyal Expressway[40] 19 km (11.8 mi) Tamil Nadu
Delhi Eastern Peripheral Expressway[41] 135.6 km (84.3 mi) National Capital Region
Delhi-Meerut Expressway[42] 150 km (93.2 mi) National Capital Region
DelhiWestern Peripheral Expressway[43] 135.6 km (84.3 mi) National Capital Region
Ganga Expressway[44][45] 1,047 km (650.6 mi) Uttar Pradesh
Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway[46] 800 km (497.1 mi) Maharashtra
Mumbai-Nashik Expressway[47][48] 150 km (93.2 mi) Maharashtra
Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway[49] 380 km (236.1 mi) Maharashtra, Gujarat
MumbaiWestern Freeway[50] 25.3 km (15.7 mi) Maharashtra
Shimla-Chandigarh Expressway[51] 120 km (74.6 mi) Punjab, Himachal Pradesh
Sion-Panvel Expressway[52] 25 km (15.5 mi) Maharashtra
Udhampur-Jammu highway[53] 64 km (39.8 mi) Jammu and Kashmir
Upper Ganga Canal Expressway[54][55] 150 km (93.2 mi) Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
List of Expressways – Under Construction
16. STATE HIGHWAYS
State Governments have the authority
and responsibility to build road networks
and state highways.
State governments have been
implementing a number of state highway
projects since 2000. By 2010, state
highway projects worth $1.7 billion had
been completed, and an additional $11.4
billion worth of projects were under
implementation.
17. The State Highways provide linkages with
the National Highways, district
headquarters, important towns, tourist
centers and minor ports and carry the
traffic along major centers within the
state.
Their total length is about 137,712 km
18. MAJOR DISTRICT ROADS
These are important roads within a
district connecting areas of production
with markets and connecting these with
each other or with the State Highways &
National Highways. It also connectsTaluka
headquarters and rural areas to District
headquarters within the state.
19. RURAL ROADS
The rural roads in India forms a
substantial portion of the Indian road
network.
These roads are in poor shape, affecting
the rural population's quality of life and
Indian farmer's ability to transfer produce
to market post-harvest.
Over 30 percent of Indian farmer's
harvest spoils post-harvest because of the
poor infrastructure.
20. For the development of these rural roads,
Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana (or
"Prime Minister Rural Roads Scheme"), was
launched in December 2000 by the Indian
government to provide connectivity to
unconnected rural habitations.
In some parts of India, where the
government has attempted to manage it
directly as a local social spending program,
this program has produced limited results
and no lasting change over 10 years, in either
the quality or quantity of rural road
network.
21. Rural road network in India,
trends over 10 years
Kilometers
in 2001
Kilometers
as of May
2011
Kilometers
under
construction in
2011
Total rural roads 2.7 million 3.1 million 0.1 million
Paved, not maintained
rural roads
0.5 million
Unpaved rural roads 2.2 million 1.9 million
Paved, maintained rural
roads
728,871 53,634
New rural roads 322,900 82,743
22. ISSUES
The main roads in India are under huge
pressure and in great need of modernisation
in order to handle the increased
requirements of the Indian economy.
In addition to maintenance, the expansion of
the network and widening of existing roads
is becoming increasingly important.This
would then enable the roads to handle
increased traffic, and also allow for a
corresponding increase in the average
movement speed on India's roads.
23. The World Health Organization compilation
of road network safety data for major
economies found India to have the highest
number of road fatalities in the World, with
105,000 road-accident caused deaths in 2006
The low road densities per 1000 people has
created significant congestion and slow
speeds on existing roads inside cities.
Because of the congestion, the fuel efficiency
of the vehicles in India is very low.This
increases the overall fuel consumption per
equivalent kilometer travelled, besides
resulting in heavy pollution since the engines
run very inefficiently at such low speeds.
24. Efforts in India to address
issues related to road network
India's recent efforts to build modern highways and
improve its road network has made a significant
difference in trucking logistics.According to DHL, a
global logistics company, the average time to truck
shipments from New Delhi to Bengaluru (Bangalore),
a 2000+ kilometre journey, had dropped in 2008, to
about five days
By 2010, the average time to complete a road trip
from New Delhi to Mumbai, a 1400+ kilometer
journey, had dropped to about 35 hours. In contrast, a
similar journey takes about half the time in China, and
one third in European Union countries.
25. In a 2010 report, KPMG – one of the world's largest
audit and advisory services company – noted marked
improvements in Indian road network and logistics
efficiencies in recent years.[45] The report also
identified the competitive challenges faced by India.
Some findings of this report include:
The average road speed in India has increased to 30–
40 kilometers per hour.The worldwide average road
speed, which includes China, ranges between 60–80
kilometers per hour.
Four lane road network in India has increased to
7,000 kilometers. China, in comparison, has 34,000
kilometers of equivalent quality four lane roads.
Average surface freight costs have dropped to
US$0.07 per kilometer. Japan, in comparison, has
average surface freight costs of US$0.037 per
kilometer.
26. The KPMG report also notes that India's
road network logistics and transportation
bottlenecks hinder its GDP growth by
one to two percent (US$16 billion –
US$32 billion). In India's 2010 per capita
income basis, this is equivalent to a loss of
about 10 million new jobs every year.
The planned addition of over 12,000
kilometers of expressways in the next 10
years may help address some of such
issues.
