Indian Road Network

India has a huge network of over 3.314 million kilometers of roadways (2.1 million miles), making it one of the largest road networks in the world. This huge network, which includes both paved and unpaved roads, are categorized as expressways or freeways, National Highways, State Highways, major district roads, and rural & other roads. The roads generally are dual carriageways in expressways and highways.

Road infrastructure is the main catalyst for the development of important key sectors of economy like Agriculture, Industry, Mining, Energy, Forestry and Dairy Development. These sectors depend heavily on the development and maintenance of the road network and efficient transportation system.

History

The Silk Road in the 1st century.

The history of evolution of Indian roads dates back to the prehistoric Indus Valley Civilization. Street pavings has been found from the first human settlements around 4000 BC in the ancient cities of Harrapa and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley Civilization in the Indian subcontinent. Much later, around the 1st Century, the ancient Silk Road came into being, which passed through the Indian subcontinent.

Evolution of the Indian road network - The main map shows routes that have existed since Mughal times, Inset A shows the major cultural currents of the prehistoric period, B shows pre-Mauryan Indian routes, C shows the Mauryan network, D shows the trade routes at the beginning of the Christian era, and E shows the Indian "Z".

Ruling emperors and monarchs of ancient India constructed numerous brick roads in the cities. One of the most famous highways of medieval India is the Grand Trunk Road. The Grand Trunk Road begins in Sonargaon near Dhaka in Bangladesh and ends at Peshawar in Pakistan. In India, it links several important cities from Kolkata in the east to Amritsar in the west, while traveling via the cities of Patna, Varanasi, Kanpur, Agra, Delhi, Panipat, Pipli, Ambala, Rajpura, Ludhiana, and Jalandhar. During the colonial period in the 19th century, the British upgraded the existing highway network and built roads in many treacherous areas including the Western Ghats.

Statistics

Almost 80% of passenger traffic and about 65% of freight movement is handled by this vast network.

In general, roads in India are primarily bitumen-based macadamized roads. However, a few of the National Highways have concrete roads too. In some locations, such as in Kanpur, British-built concrete roads are still in use. Concrete roads were less popular prior to 1990s because of low availability of cement then. However, with large supplies of cement in the country and the virtues of concrete roads, they are once again gaining popularity. Concrete roads are weather-proof and require lower maintenance compared to bituminous roads. Because bitumen is obtained mostly from imported crude oil, and due to other factors, concrete-based roads will prove to be more cost-effective in future. Apart from these, one also comes across unpaved dirt roads in the countryside, which is fast getting converted to paved roads.

The National and State Highways form the economic backbone of the country. These have helped development along the route, and many towns have sprung up along major highways. State Highways and Major District Roads constitute the secondary system of road infrastructure of India.

By acting as the link between the rural and urban areas, the State Highways and Major District Roads contribute significantly to the development of the rural economy and industrial growth of the country. It is estimated that the secondary system carries about 40 per cent of the total road traffic and comprises about 20% of the total road length.

The Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), established in 1948, is the premier national laboratory engaged in carrying out research and development projects on design, construction and maintenance of roads and runways, traffic and transportation planning of mega and medium cities, management of roads in different terrains, improvement of marginal materials, utilization of industrial waste in road construction, landslide control, ground improvements environmental pollution, road traffic safety and analysis & design, wind, fatigue, corrosion studies, performance monitoring/evaluation, service life assessment and rehabilitation of highway & railway bridges.

Expressways

Mumbai Pune Expressway

The concept of expressways or freeways is also slowly catching up in the country. The most notable of them is the Mumbai-Pune Expressway connecting the financial capital of India, Mumbai to the neighboring IT-propelled city of Pune. This is also one of the few concrete roads in the country. In the country, an expressway typically would have six-lane highway divided in the center by a wide divider. An extra lane is provided on each side as a hard shoulder. These have fencing to prevent human/cattle trespassing across the expressway. Usually no two-wheelers, three-wheelers or tractor vehicles are allowed. Further, there are enough petrol pumps and workshops along the stretch. Speeds along these can be generally maintained above 120 km/h and these do not have undue merging of traffic or speed-breakers so as to ensure smooth travel. Currently, most of the expressways are toll roads, which attract a toll tax for using them. The toll tax booths or toll plazas are usually located on the state borders. A good example of this is the 32-lane toll plaza at the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway built on the National Highway 8 (NH 8).

National Highways

India National Highways Map

These are main highways running through the length and breadth of the country connecting major ports, state capitals, large industrial and tourist centres, etc. National Highways in India are designated as NH followed by the highway number.

While the traffic on National Highways has been growing due to acceleration of industrialization in the country, the Government of India is taking steps to utilize latest technologies and improved management techniques to provide hindrance-free traffic movement by way of widening roads, grade separation, construction of bypasses, bridges, rail-road crossings, etc.

Even though the National Highways represent only 2% of the total network length, they handle about 40% of the total road traffic.

The National Highways are further classified based on the width of carriageway of the Highway. Generally, in case of a single lane, the lane width is of 3.75 meters, while in case of multi-lane National Highways, each of the lanes have a width of 3.5 meters. As of February 2008, out of the total length, 14% have four or more lanes and about 59% have 2-lanes or are double-laned, while the rest (27%) of the National Highway network has single or intermediate lane.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was constituted by the Indian Parliament in 1988. It is the authority responsible for the development, maintenance and management of National Highways entrusted to it. The Authority was made operational in February 1995 and is currently undertaking the developmental activities under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) in phases. All the phases combined together envisage improvement of more than 25,000 km of arterial routes of National Highway Network to international standards. In addition to implementation of NHDP, the NHAI is also responsible for implementing other projects on National Highways, primarily road connectivity to major ports in India.

State Highways

The State Highways provide linkages with the National Highways, district headquarters, important towns, tourist centres and minor ports and carry the traffic along major centres within the state. These arterial routes provides connectivity to important towns and cities within the state with National Highways or State Highways of the neighbouring states. Their total length is about 137,711 km.

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 connects Taluka headquarters and rural areas to District headquarters within the state.

Rural & other roads

The rural roads in India forms a substantial portion of the vast Indian road network. Most of the rural roards were initially sand-roads. Because the agricultural produce and the finished products of small-scale industries in rural areas are to be moved from the producing centres to the marketing centres, the road connectivity is essential for rural population.

For the development of these rural roads, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) (or "Prime Minister Rural Roads Scheme"), was launched in December 2000 by the Government of India to provide connectivity to unconnected rural habitations as part of a poverty eradication measure. For its implementation, the Government of India is setting uniform technical and management standards and facilitating policy development and planning at State level in order to ensure sustainable management of the rural roads network. The scheme is to be implemented in phases wherein the number of roads under each phase would be governed by the population of habitations (hamlets). For example, the initial phase would attempt to cover all inhabitations with a population of 1000.

It is expected that about 375,000 km of new road construction and 372,000 km of upgradation/renewal would be undertaken as part of the scheme. The construction cost is fully borne by the Government of India as a Centrally sponsored Scheme, while the State Governments are responsible for providing maintenance funds. As of May 24, 2007, more than 122,000 km of roads have been completed under PMGSY and work is in progress in projects covering another 100,000 km.

Issues

The main roads in India are under huge pressure and in great need of modernization in order to handle the increased requirements of the Indian economy. Besides just fixing and paving the roads, widening & straightening of roads and expanding the network is becoming increasingly necessary. This is because the roads can then handle increased traffic, both in terms of goods and public movement together with an increase in the speed of movement.

In general, due to decades of bureaucratic procedural difficulties, the road network has suffered long delays. The political leaders in India have now started examining the situation and taking action. However, there are still other environmental, logistical, and local issues contributing to delay in development of the road infrastructure. For instance, although the government itself owns a wide corridor around the center of roads called the Right of Way (ROW), over many years, poor and landless people have built houses and other property along the roadside. Farmers whose fields adjoined the road had their crops encroach up to the side of the road. Further, other resources are located along roadsides, whether they be trees, pathways to water resources, streams that were used for their water, etc.

These squatters whose property lies within the ROW would not only be greatly affected by road widening, but also those who use the resources next to the road might be adversely affected. It is also difficult to remove these encroachers and further, removal of trees is increasingly becoming a sensitive issue.

Contents