ROADS
- In India, Road infrastructure is used to transport over 60% of total goods and 85% of total passengers traffic.
- National Highways/Expressways: 92,851 km
- State Highways: 1,42,687 km
- Other Roads: 46,49,462 km
- Generally, a lane has a width of 3.75 m in case of single lane and 5 m per lane in case of multilane National Highways.
- The break-up of National Highways in terms of width is as under: Single Lane-24%, Double Lane-52%, Four Lane/Six lane/Eight Lane-24%.
- Although National Highways constitute only about 2% of the road newtork, it carries 40% of the total road
- The number of vehicles has been growing at an average pace of around 10% per annum.
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS
- NHDP PHASE I AND II: It Comprises the development of National Highways to 4/6 lane standards of the following routes. (a) Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) connecting 4 major metropolitan cities viz. Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai-Kolkata-Delhi. (b) North South and East West Corridors (NS—EW) connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari and Silchar to Porbandar with a spur from Salem to Cochin. (C) Road Connectivity of major ports of the country to National Highways. (d) Other National Highway stretches.
- The NHDP is being implemented mainly by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
- The NHDP is the largest highway project ever undertaken in the country.
- Government has embarked upon a massive National Highways Development Project (NHDP) in the country.
- The Ministry is carrying out development and maintenance work of National Highways through three agencies, viz., National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), State Public Works Departments (PWDS) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO).
- The total length of the network, as of today, is 79,116 km.
- The Central Government is responsible for development and maintenance of the National Highways system.
- NHDP Phase-I which was approved by CCEA in December 2000, at an estimated cost of Rs.30,300 crore (1999 prices) comprises 5,846 km of Golden Quadrilateral, 981 km of NS EW corridor, 356 km of Port Connectivity and 315 km of other National Highways a total of 7,522 km. During the year 4129 km was completed upto March 2014.
- NHDP Phase—II which was approved in December 2009 at an estimated cost of Rs.34,339 crore (2002 prices) comprises mostly NS-EW Corridor (6,161 km) and other National Highways of 486 km length, the total length being 6,647 km. During the year 146.10 km was completed upto March, 2014.
- NHDP PHASE III: Government has approved 4-laning of 4000 km of National Highways on BOT basis under NHDP Phase-IIIA at an estimated cost of Rs.22,000 crore in March, 2005. Subsequently Government approved addition stretches in 2006 and 2007 for implementation for upgrading total length of 12109 km.
- NHDP PHASE IV: This Phase envisages upgradation of about 20,000 km of the highways to 2-lane paved shoulder. This phase was approved in 2008.
- NHDP PHASE V: Six laning of 6,500 km of existing 4 lane National Highways under NHDP Phase-V (on DBFO basis) has been approved in October, 2006 at an estimated cost of Rs.41210 crore (at 2006 prices).
- NHDP PHASE VI: It envisages development of 1,000 km of fully access controlled expressways under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model following Design-Build-Finance-Operate (DBFO) approach. The Phase—VI of NHDP has been approved in November, 2006. The entire projects are targeted to be completed by December, 2015.
- NHDP PHASE VII: Government has approved construction of stand along ring roads, bypasses, grade separators, flyovers, elevated roads, tunnels, road over bridges, underpasses, service roads, etc. on BOT (Toll) mode under NHDP—Phase VII in December, 2007, 36 stretches in different states have been identified under it.
