India has 161,350 km (100,260 mi) of national highways as of March 2022 compared to 1,01,011 km in FY 2013–14.[1][2][3] According to Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday 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.
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[10] with a target of constructing 83,677 km (51,994 mi)[11] 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 ₹5.35 lakhcrore (US$67 billion) by 2021–22.[12]
Network length
Total length of national highways in India in km [13][14]
Note: Yearly data for 2018 and 2020 are not available.
State/union territory
2015
2016
2017
2019
2021
2022
2023
2024
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
331
331
331
331
331
Andhra Pradesh
4670
5465
6383
6912
7340
Arunachal Pradesh
2513
2513
2537
2537
2537
Assam
3784
3821
3845
3909
3936
Bihar
4701
4839
4839
5358
5421
Chandigarh
15
15
15
15
15
Chhattisgarh
3079
3078
3523
3605
3620
Delhi
80
80
79
157
157
Goa
262
262
293
293
299
Gujarat
4971
4971
5456
6635
7744
Haryana
2307
2622
2741
3166
3237
Himachal Pradesh
2466
2642
2643
2607
2607
Jammu and Kashmir
2593
2601
2601
2423
2423
Jharkhand
2632
2654
2661
3367
3367
Karnataka
6432
6503
6991
7335
7412
Kerala
1811
1812
1782
1782
1782
Madhya Pradesh
5184
5194
8053
8772
8941
Maharashtra
7048
7435
16239
17757
17931
Manipur
1746
1746
1746
1750
1750
Meghalaya
1204
1203
1204
1156
1156
Mizoram
1381
1381
1423
1423
1423
Nagaland
1080
1150
1547
1548
1548
Odisha
4645
4838
5413
5762
5897
Puducherry
64
64
64
27
64
Punjab
2239
2769
3228
3274
4099
Rajasthan
7886
7906
8972
10342
10350
Sikkim
309
463
463
463
709
Tamil Nadu
5006
4946
5918
6742
6858
Telangana
2687
2696
3786
3795
3974
Tripura
577
805
854
854
854
Uttar Pradesh
8483
8483
9017
11737
11831
Uttarakhand
2842
2714
2842
2949
3106
West Bengal
2910
2956
3004
3664
3665
All India
97991
101011
120493
132500
136440
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.[22]
NHAI collected tolls worth Rs 34,742 crore on national highways in FY22.[23] Additionally NHAI toll revenue will to soar to Rs 1.40 lakh crores in next three years.[24]
Future
Brownfield National Highway Projects is an upgradating/widening of existing four lane highways into six lane highways which are not controlled access highways.[25]