Roads: history, network and classification

Detail

1. History of road building in India

Grand Trunk (GT) Road is one of the oldest and longest highways in South Asia. It is a trunk road (a main road that joins far-apart regions).

• Who built it: Sher Shah Suri, a 16th-century ruler. He called it the Shahi (royal) road.
• Why he built it: to hold his empire together. The road joined the Indus valley in the north-west to the Sonar valley in Bengal in the east.
• British period: the British renamed it the Grand Trunk Road. It ran from Calcutta (Kolkata) to Peshawar (now in Pakistan).
• Today: inside India it runs from Amritsar (Punjab) to Kolkata (West Bengal). It crosses the Indo-Gangetic plain through Delhi. Under the new national highway numbering it is mostly carried by NH-44 (Amritsar–Delhi side) and NH-19 (Delhi/Agra–Kolkata side).

Little road building before World War II

• Before the 1940s, modern roads were built mainly around towns, cantonments (army stations) and ports. They served British trade and the army.
• Large rural areas had only kutcha (earth) tracks.

Nagpur Plan (1943) was India's first serious attempt at a road plan for the whole country.

• What it did: it put roads into four classes: national highways, state highways, district roads and village roads.
• Why it failed: India was split between British provinces and princely states (areas ruled by Indian kings under British control). The two sides did not coordinate, so the plan could not be carried out.

Twenty-Year Road Plan (1961) came after Independence. It was the next plan to improve road conditions across the country.

Present pattern: even today, roads are crowded around urban centres (towns and cities). Remote rural, hilly and forest areas have fewer roads.

2. India's road network: size and nature

• Size: India has the second largest road network in the world.

• 63.45 lakh km as of 2024 [2] (NCERT: 62.16 lakh km, 2020-21).

• How the network splits by class (2019-20, MoRTH Road Transport Year Book data) [2]:

Road class	Length (km)	Share of total length
National Highways	1,32,499	2%
State Highways	1,79,535	3%
District Roads	6,12,778	10%
Rural Roads	45,22,228	71%
Urban Roads	5,41,554	9%
Project Roads	3,43,163	5%
Total	63,31,757	100%

• Traffic on roads is growing fast (2008-09 to 2019-20) [2]:
• Passenger traffic rose from 1,022 to 2,927 billion passenger-km, a 10% CAGR (compound annual growth rate: the average yearly growth over a period).

• Goods traffic rose from 6,182 to 25,199 billion tonne-km, a 14% CAGR.

• Road density (km of road per 100 sq km of area) is very uneven. In 2011 it ranged from only 12.14 km in Jammu and Kashmir to 517.77 km in Kerala, against a national average of 142.68 km (NCERT). Mountains and low population mean few roads; flat, crowded land means many.

3. Why roads beat railways for short trips

Advantage of roads	What it means in practice
Lower construction cost	A road costs much less to build than a railway line
Can cross broken and steep land	Roads can climb dissected (cut-up) terrain and steep slopes, as in the Himalaya, where rail is hard to build
Cheap for small loads and short distances	Good for a few people or a small amount of goods
Door-to-door service	Goods move straight from farm or factory to the buyer, so loading and unloading costs less
Feeder role	Roads link villages and towns to railway stations, ports and airports

4. Metalled and unmetalled roads

Type	Made of	Use
Metalled (pucca) roads	Cement, concrete or bitumen (coal tar)	All-weather: usable all year
Unmetalled (kutcha) roads	Earth or gravel	Become unusable in the rainy season

5. Classes of roads

The Class 12 text uses four classes: NH, SH, district roads and rural roads. The Class 10 text lists six: Golden Quadrilateral Super Highways, National Highways, State Highways, District Roads, Other (rural) Roads and Border Roads.

(a) National Highways (NH)

• Definition: main trunk roads built and maintained by the Central Government. They carry inter-state traffic and the defence and strategic movement of troops and supplies.
• Growth in length:
• 19,700 km (1951) → 1,36,440 km (NCERT, 2020).

• 91,287 km (2014) → 1,46,195 km (2024) [2].

• Share: about 2% of road length but a large share of traffic. NHs carried nearly 33% of road traffic in 2019-20 [2] (NCERT: 40%).

• Building pace: NH construction target for 2015-16 to 2023-24 was 1,02,194 km. Of this, 91,677 km (90%) was built [2]. For 2024-25 the target was 3,100 km, and 5,853 km had already been built by December 2024 [2].

(b) National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)

• Definition: the body that 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.
• Became operational in 1995.
• It carries out big projects such as the Golden Quadrilateral and Bharatmala.

(c) Golden Quadrilateral and corridors (Class 10 class)

• Golden Quadrilateral (GQ): a 4-to-6-lane super highway that joins the four big metro cities Delhi–Kolkata–Chennai–Mumbai–Delhi. It was started in 1999 under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP).
• North–South Corridor: Srinagar (J&K) to Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu).
• East–West Corridor: Silchar (Assam) to Porbandar (Gujarat).
• Aim: cut the time and distance between India's big cities.

(d) Bharatmala Pariyojana (the GQ's successor programme)

• Phase I was approved in 2017, with a deadline of 2022 [2].
• Planned length: 34,800 km. This includes 10,000 km of NHDP work left unfinished [2].
• Planned cost: Rs 5,35,000 crore. NHAI had spent Rs 4.72 lakh crore (88%) by 30 November 2024 [2].
• Progress (31 October 2024): 26,435 km (76%) awarded and 18,714 km (54%) built [2].
• Problem: the project ran over both cost and time. The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General, India's chief public auditor) found in 2023 that 158% of the approved outlay had already been sanctioned by 31 March 2023, while only 76% of the length had been awarded [2].

(e) State Highways (SH)

• Definition: roads built and maintained by state governments (through their Public Works Departments).
• Role: they link the state capital to district headquarters and join up with the National Highways.
• Length: 1,79,535 km, about 3% of all roads (2019-20) [2].

(f) District Roads

• Definition: roads that link district headquarters to other important places in the district, such as tehsil towns and markets.
• They are kept up by the Zila Parishad (the district-level council).
• Length: 6,12,778 km, about 10% of all roads (2019-20) [2].

(g) Rural Roads (Other Roads)

• Definition: roads that link villages to each other and to towns.
• Share: about 80% of total road length (NCERT). The MoRTH 2019-20 data shows 71% for rural roads alone [2], because urban and project roads are counted separately there.
• Where they are thin:
• Rough ground (hilly, plateau and forested areas) → building roads costs more and fewer people live there → low rural road density.
• Moving away from towns → less money and less upkeep → road quality falls.

(h) Border Roads (Class 10 class)

• The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), set up in 1960, builds strategic roads in the northern and north-eastern border areas.
• These roads help defence and also open up remote, difficult areas such as high Himalayan passes.

6. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

PMGSY is a central scheme that gives all-weather roads (usable all year, even in heavy rain) to unconnected habitations. A habitation is a village or hamlet: a group of people living together in one place.

• Launched: 25 December 2000 [3]. It is run by the Ministry of Rural Development.
• Eligibility (original): habitations of 500+ people in the plains and 250+ in hill, tribal and desert areas.
• Overall progress (December 2025): 8,25,114 km of rural roads sanctioned and 7,87,520 km completed, about 95% [3]. The budget for 2025-26 is Rs 19,000 crore [3].

Phase	Year	Focus
PMGSY-I	2000	New links to unconnected habitations. Works for 1,63,339 habitations sanctioned [3]
PMGSY-II	2013	Upgrading existing roads that link rural markets and growth centres [3]
RCPLWEA	2016	Roads in 44 districts badly hit by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), the Maoist armed movement, across 9 states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh. Goal: help security forces move and bring development [3]
PMGSY-III	2019	Upgrading 1,25,000 km of through routes and major rural links to markets (GrAMs), schools and hospitals. 1,01,623 km (83%) built by December 2025 [3]
PMGSY-IV	2024-25 to 2028-29	25,000 unconnected habitations, 62,500 km of roads, outlay Rs 70,125 crore [3]

• PMGSY-IV eligibility (Census 2011 population) [3]:
• 500+ people in the plains.
• 250+ people in North-Eastern and Himalayan States/UTs.

• Habitations in special category areas: Tribal (Schedule V) areas, Aspirational Districts/Blocks and desert areas.

• Quality and monitoring [3]:

• OMMAS (Online Management, Monitoring and Accounting System) tracks progress in real time.
• e-MARG links contractor payments to road condition during the 5-year upkeep period.
• GPS tracking of vehicles is compulsory for PMGSY-III works since May 2022.

• A three-tier quality check: the agency itself, State Quality Monitors, and National Quality Monitors.

• Green technology: waste plastic, cold mix and Full Depth Reclamation had been used on more than 1.24 lakh km of roads by July 2025 [3].

Prelims Hooks

• Shahi road / Grand Trunk Road: built by Sher Shah Suri (16th century). British route: Calcutta–Peshawar. Route in India today: Amritsar–Kolkata.
• Nagpur Plan (1943) was the first road plan. Its four classes were NH, SH, district roads and village roads. It failed because British India and the princely states did not coordinate. The Twenty-Year Road Plan followed in 1961.
• India's road network is the 2nd largest in the world: 63.45 lakh km (2024) [2].
• National Highways are about 2% of length but carry about one-third to 40% 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 [2].
• NHAI became operational in 1995. BRO was set up in 1960.
• North–South Corridor: Srinagar–Kanyakumari. East–West Corridor: Silchar–Porbandar. GQ: Delhi–Kolkata–Chennai–Mumbai.
• Bharatmala Phase I (2017): 34,800 km, including 10,000 km of leftover NHDP work [2].
• PMGSY was launched on 25 December 2000. PMGSY-IV (2024-29) covers 25,000 habitations, 62,500 km and Rs 70,125 crore [3]. It is run by the Ministry of Rural Development, not MoRTH.
• Population thresholds: 500+ in the plains, 250+ in NE/Himalayan states and special areas [3].

Mains Points

• Uneven road spread (GS-I): road density ranges from about 12 km per 100 sq km in J&K to about 518 km per 100 sq km in Kerala (2011).
• Rugged land, thin population and high building cost keep the Himalaya, plateaus and forests poorly served.

• Roads stay crowded around towns, so village road quality drops with distance from cities.

• Roads as the base of rural growth (GS-III): all-weather roads link farms to markets (GrAMs), schools and hospitals.

• PMGSY has completed about 7.88 lakh km (December 2025) [3].

• Its later phases moved from new links to upgrading roads, to LWE security roads (RCPLWEA), and now to the last unconnected habitations (PMGSY-IV).

• Strategic and inter-state role: NHs and BRO roads carry defence traffic to the borders.

• NHs grew from 91,287 km (2014) to 1,46,195 km (2024) [2].

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

• Governance problems: Bharatmala Phase I ran over cost and time (CAG, 2023) [2]. Rural roads need regular upkeep, and states differ in how much they can spend.

• Answers: performance-linked maintenance (e-MARG), GPS and quality monitoring, and multimodal planning (PM Gati Shakti, 2021) that links roads with rail, ports and airports.