National highways of India


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, the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, and the public works departments of state governments. Currently, the longest national highway in India is National Highway 44 at 4,112 km. India started to increase the number of lanes of major national highways to 4 or more with the National Highway Development Project. As of March 2022 India has approximately 35,000 km of four-lane National highways.
The National Highways Authority of India and the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited are the nodal agencies responsible for building, upgrading, and maintaining most of the National Highways network. Both operate under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The National Highways Development Project 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 the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction 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 of national highways as of March 2022 compared to 101,011 km in FY 2013–14. In July 2023, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari claimed total length of the national highways in the country increased by about 59% in the span of the last nine years.
As of 2013, National highways constituted 2.7% of India's total road network, but carried about 40% of road traffic. In 2016, the government vowed to double the highway length from 101,011 to 200,000 km.
The majority of existing highways are now four-lane roads, 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 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 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, in which the main north–south and east–west corridors and highways connecting the four metropolitan cities 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.
The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited started functioning as of 18 July 2014. It is a fully owned company of the Government of India, under the administrative control of the 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. 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 or north–south. 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.
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 at an estimated cost of by 2021–22.

List of national highways in India

Expanding National Highway Network

The average speed of NH construction has also seen a significant increase, from a baseline of 12.1 km/day in 2014 rising to 28.3 km/day.
The speed of highway construction reached 37 km per day in 2020-21, a record for fastest highway construction in India.

Network length

State / union territoryState PWDNHAINHIDCLTotal length as on 31.03.2019
Andaman and Nicobar Islands87331
Andhra Pradesh6,912
Arunachal Pradesh1,0352,537
Assam1,0103,909
Bihar5,358
Chandigarh15
Chhattisgarh3,605
Dadra and Nagar Haveli31
Daman and Diu22
Delhi157
Goa293
Gujarat6,635
Haryana3,166
Himachal Pradesh3202,607
Jammu & Kashmir4362,423
Jharkhand3,367
Karnataka7,335
Kerala1,782
Lakshadweep0
Madhya Pradesh8,772
Maharashtra17,757
Manipur1,7511,750
Meghalaya8231,156
Mizoram3721,422.5
Nagaland3241,548
Odisha5,762
Puducherry27
Punjab3,274
Rajasthan10,342
Sikkim595463
Tamil Nadu6,742
Telangana3,795
Tripura573854
Uttarakhand6602,949
Uttar Pradesh11,737
West Bengal43,664
India total48,5907,990132,500

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.
State/union territory2005200620072008200920102011201220132014
Andaman and Nicobar Islands300300300300300300300300300300
Andhra Pradesh4472447244724472453745374537453750226590
Arunachal Pradesh392392392392199219921992202720272027
Assam2836283628362836283628362836294029403634
Bihar3537364236423642364236423642410641684467
Chandigarh24242424242424242424
Chhattisgarh2184218421842184218421842184228922893031
Delhi72727272728080808080
Goa269269269269269269269269269269
Gujarat2871324532453245324532453245403238284694
Haryana1468151215121512151215181518163316332050
Himachal Pradesh1208120812081208140914091409150615062196
Jammu and Kashmir823124512451245124512451245124516952319
Jharkhand1805180518051805180518051805217023742968
Karnataka3843384338433843439643964396439646426177
Kerala1440144014401457145714571457145714571700
Madhya Pradesh5200467046704670467050275027506451165116
Maharashtra4176417641764176417641914191425744986249
Manipur959959959959959959959131713171452
Meghalaya810810810810810810810117111711171
Mizoram92792792792792792792710271027122
Nagaland494494494494494494494494494741
Odisha3704370437043704370437043704370444164550
Puducherry53535353535353535353
Punjab1557155715571557155715571557155715571699
Rajasthan5585558555855585558555855585713071807646
Sikkim62626262626262149149149
Tamil Nadu4183446244624462483248324832494349434975
Telangana..........
Tripura400400400400400400400400400509
Uttar Pradesh5599587458745874677467746774781878187986
Uttarakhand1991199119911991204220422042204220422282
West Bengal2325237723772524257825782578268126812908
All India65569665906659066754705487093470934768187911691287

State-wise length of National Highways
Note: Yearly data for 2018 and 2020 are not available.
State/union territory20152016201720192021202220232024
Andaman and Nicobar Islands331331331331331
Andhra Pradesh46705465638369127340
Arunachal Pradesh25132513253725372537
Assam37843821384539093936
Bihar47014839483953585421
Chandigarh1515151515
Chhattisgarh30793078352336053620
Delhi808079157157
Goa262262293293299
Gujarat49714971545666357744
Haryana23072622274131663237
Himachal Pradesh24662642264326072607
Jammu and Kashmir25932601260124232423
Jharkhand26322654266133673367
Karnataka64326503699173357412
Kerala18111812178217821782
Madhya Pradesh51845194805387728941
Maharashtra70487435162391775717931
Manipur17461746174617501750
Meghalaya12041203120411561156
Mizoram13811381142314231423
Nagaland10801150154715481548
Odisha46454838541357625897
Puducherry6464642764
Punjab22392769322832744099
Rajasthan7886790689721034210350
Sikkim309463463463709
Tamil Nadu50064946591867426858
Telangana26872696378637953974
Tripura577805854854854
Uttar Pradesh8483848390171173711831
Uttarakhand28422714284229493106
West Bengal29102956300436643665
All India97991101011120493132500136440