EXPANSION AND UPGRADATION OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

• National Highways (NHs) are arterial roads for long-distance, inter-state freight and passenger traffic, developed and maintained by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
• NH network has expanded ~60% from 91,287 km (March 2014) to 1,46,572 km (Feb 2026) — a flagship infra metric routinely asked in Prelims/Mains.
• Why care: infra is a "prime mover" of GDP; convergence with PM GatiShakti NMP and Bharatmala makes it a recurring GS-III (Infrastructure) theme.