National Highways

Also called: NH · Topic: Transport and Communication in India · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 7 "Lifelines of National Economy"; Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"

Meaning

National Highways (NH) are the main trunk roads of India (main roads that join far-apart regions). The Central Government builds and maintains them. They carry inter-state traffic and the defence and strategic movement of troops and supplies. They join state capitals, major cities, important ports and railway junctions.

They are only about 2% of India's road length, but they carry a large share of road traffic: nearly 33% in 2019-20 [2] (NCERT gives 40%). This makes them the backbone of the country's road system.

Explanation

How the NH class came about

• Before World War II:
• There was little road building.

• Modern roads were built mainly around towns, cantonments (army stations) and ports. They served British trade and the army.

• Nagpur Plan (1943):

• This was India's first road plan for the whole country.
• It created four classes of road: national highways, state highways, district roads and village roads.

• It failed because British provinces and princely states (areas ruled by Indian kings under British control) did not coordinate.

• Twenty-Year Road Plan (1961): this was the next plan after Independence to improve roads across the country.

• Old roots: the Grand Trunk (GT) Road is the oldest trunk route.
• Sher Shah Suri built it in the 16th century and called it the Shahi (royal) road.
• Under the new numbering, it is mostly carried by NH-44 (Amritsar–Delhi side) and NH-19 (Delhi/Agra–Kolkata side).

Who builds and runs them

• Central Government: it is responsible for National Highways. State Highways are the job of state governments.
• National Highways Authority of India (NHAI):
• It builds, maintains and runs the National Highways.
• It is an autonomous body (it runs itself but answers to a ministry) under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
• It became operational in 1995.
• It carries out big projects such as the Golden Quadrilateral and Bharatmala.

Growth in length and pace of building

• Long-term growth: 19,700 km (1951) → 1,36,440 km (NCERT, 2020).
• Recent growth: 91,287 km (2014) → 1,46,195 km (2024) [2].
• Length in the 2019-20 class table: 1,32,499 km. This is about 2% of the total network of 63,31,757 km [2].
• Building targets:
• For 2015-16 to 2023-24, the target was 1,02,194 km. Of this, 91,677 km (90%) was built [2].
• For 2024-25, the target was 3,100 km. By December 2024, 5,853 km had already been built [2].

Projects that upgrade NHs

• Golden Quadrilateral (GQ):
• A 4-to-6-lane super highway that joins Delhi–Kolkata–Chennai–Mumbai–Delhi.

• It was started in 1999 under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP).

• North–South and East–West Corridors:

• Their aim is to cut the time and distance between India's big cities.

• Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase I (the GQ's successor programme):

• It was approved in 2017, with a deadline of 2022 [2].
• Planned length: 34,800 km, including 10,000 km of unfinished NHDP work [2].
• Planned cost: Rs 5,35,000 crore. NHAI had spent Rs 4.72 lakh crore (88%) by 30 November 2024 [2].
• By 31 October 2024, 26,435 km (76%) had been awarded and 18,714 km (54%) built [2].

Where it occurs

• Golden Quadrilateral: joins the four metro cities Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai.
• North–South Corridor: from Srinagar (J&K) to Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu).
• East–West Corridor: from Silchar (Assam) to Porbandar (Gujarat).
• GT Road route: from Amritsar (Punjab) to Kolkata (West Bengal) through Delhi, across the Indo-Gangetic plain. It runs mostly on NH-44 and NH-19.

• In British times it ran from Calcutta to Peshawar (now in Pakistan).

• Who runs them: the Central Government, through MoRTH and NHAI (operational 1995).

• Spread: NHs reach across all states. Road density (km of road per 100 sq km of area) is still uneven: from 12.14 km in J&K to 517.77 km in Kerala (2011, NCERT). Rugged Himalayan and plateau areas are thinly served.

Don't confuse with

• State Highways (SH): state governments build these through their Public Works Departments. They link the state capital to district headquarters. NHs are a Central responsibility. SHs are about 3% of road length (1,79,535 km), a little more than NHs [2].
• Golden Quadrilateral / Expressway corridors: the Class 10 text lists Golden Quadrilateral Super Highways as a separate class from National Highways. The GQ is an upgrading project run by NHAI under NHDP. It is not the same thing as the whole NH network.
• Border Roads: the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), set up in 1960, builds these strategic roads in the northern and north-eastern border areas. NHs are built and run through NHAI/MoRTH.
• PMGSY rural roads: these are run by the Ministry of Rural Development, not MoRTH. They link villages, not states.

Prelims Hooks

• NHs are about 2% of road length but carry about one-third (33%, 2019-20) [2] to 40% (NCERT) of road traffic. Trap: the largest share of length belongs to rural roads, not NHs.
• Ranking by length (2019-20): Rural > District > Urban > Project > State Highways > National Highways. NHs are the shortest class [2].
• NHAI became operational in 1995, under MoRTH. BRO was set up in 1960.
• Nagpur Plan (1943) first created the "national highway" class. The Twenty-Year Road Plan followed in 1961.
• Match the routes: N–S Corridor: Srinagar–Kanyakumari. E–W Corridor: Silchar–Porbandar. GQ: Delhi–Kolkata–Chennai–Mumbai (started 1999, NHDP).
• GT Road (Sher Shah Suri's Shahi road) today runs mostly on NH-44 and NH-19. Bharatmala Phase I (2017) covers 34,800 km [2].

Mains Points

• Strategic and economic backbone (GS-III, infrastructure):
• NHs carry inter-state goods and defence traffic. Goods traffic on roads grew from 6,182 to 25,199 billion tonne-km between 2008-09 and 2019-20, a 14% CAGR (average yearly growth) [2].
• NH length grew from 91,287 km (2014) to 1,46,195 km (2024) [2].

• Corridor projects (GQ, Bharatmala) cut travel time between economic centres.

• Uneven spread (GS-I):

• Road density ranges from about 12 km per 100 sq km in J&K to about 518 km in Kerala (2011).

• Rugged land, thin population and high building costs keep the Himalaya, plateaus and forests poorly served, so strategic NH and BRO links matter most there.

• Governance problems and responses:

• The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General, India's chief public auditor) found in 2023 that Bharatmala Phase I ran over both cost and time.
• By 31 March 2023, 158% of the approved outlay had been sanctioned, but only 76% of the length had been awarded [2].
• Responses: tighter project monitoring, and multimodal planning under PM Gati Shakti (2021), which links highways with rail, ports and airports.

Related concepts

• Grand Trunk Road
• Nagpur Plan
• Road network of India
• National Highways Authority of India
• State Highways
• Rural roads
• Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana

Read more

• Roads: history, network and classification