National Highways Development Project

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The National Highways Development Project is a project to upgrade, rehabilitate and widen major highways in India to a higher standard. The project was implemented in 1998. "National Highways" account for only about 2% of the total length of roads, but carry about 40% of the total traffic across the length and breadth of the country. This project is managed by the National Highways Authority of India under the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. The NHAI has implemented US$ 71 billion for this project, as of 2006. Considering the importance of the National Highways and the rapid increase in traffic, the Government has taken up the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), which consists of the following components:

The Network of National Highways in India

Phase I The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ; 5,846 km) connecting the four major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. This project connecting four metro cities, would be 5,846 km. Total cost of the project is Rs300 billion (US$6.8 billion), funded largely by the government’s special petroleum product tax revenues and government borrowing. The project is likely to be 92% complete by December 2005.

Phase II: North-South and East-West corridors comprising national highways connecting four extreme points of the country. The North-South and East-West Corridor (NS-EW; 7,300 km) connecting Srinagar in the north to Kanyakumari in the south, including spur from Salem to Kochi, and Silchar in the east to Porbandar in the west. Total length of the network is 7,300 km. As of April 2005, 707 km (10%) of the project had been completed, while 1,373 km is under construction. Contracts for the balance of 5,194 km have yet to be awarded. It also includes Port connectivity and other projects — 1,157 km. The official target for completing this project is December 2007 at a cost of Rs350 billion (US$8 billion), with funding similar to Phase I.

Phase III: The government recently approved NHDP-III to upgrade 10,000 km of national highways on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis, which takes into account high-density traffic, connectivity of state capitals via NHDP Phase I and II, and connectivity to centres of economic importance. Phase III will be conducted in two parts: IIIA: 4,000 km are scheduled for completion by December 2009; III B - 6,000 km will be completed by December 2012.

Phase IV: The government is considering widening 20,000 km of highway that were not part of Phase I, II, or III. Phase IV will convert existing single lane highways into two lanes with paved shoulders. The plan will soon be presented to the government for approval.

Phase V: As road traffic increases over time, a number of four lane highways will need to be upgraded/expanded to six lanes. The current plan calls for upgrade of about 5,000 km of four-lane roads, although the government has not yet identified the stretches.

Phase VI: The government is working on constructing expressways that would connect major commercial and industrial townships. It has already identified 400 km of Baroda-Mumbai section that would connect to the existing Baroda-Ahmedabad section. The World Bank is studying this project. The project will be funded on BOT basis.

Phase VII: This phase calls for improvements to city road networks by adding ring roads to enable easier connectivity with national highways to important cities. In addition, improvements will be made to stretches of national highways that require additional flyovers and bypasses given population and housing growth along the highways and increasing traffic. The government has not yet identified a firm investment plan for this phase.

**National Highways Development Project** at a glance
NHDP Phase	Particulars	Length	Indicative Cost (IRS crore)
NHDP-I & II	Balance work of GQ and EW-NS corridors	13,000	42,000
NHDP-III	4-laning	10,000	55,000
NHDP-IV	2-laning	20,000	25,000
NHDP-V	6-laning of selected stretches	5,000	17,500
NHDP-VI	Development of expressways	1,000	15,000
NHDP-VII	Ring Roads, Bypasses, Grade Separators, Service Roads etc.	N.A.	15,000
	Total	45,000	1,69,500 (The revised estimate is 2,20,000)

Note: 1 crore= 10 million

Timeline of the **National Highways Development Project**
Priority	NHDP Phase	Length (km)	Status	Approval	Completion
1	Phase I	5846	Fully awarded	December 2000	December 2006
2	Phase II	7300	Award in progress	December 2003	December 2009
3	Phase III A	4000	Already identified	March 2005	December 2009
4	Phase V	6500	5700 km of GQ + 800 km to be identified	November 2005	December 2012
5	Phase III B	6000	Already identified	March 2006	December 2012
6	Phase VII A		Ring roads to be identified	December 2006	December 2012
7	Phase IV A	5000	To be identified	December 2006	December 2012
8	Phase VII B		Ring roads to be identified	December 2007	December 2013
9	Phase IV B	5000	To be identified	December 2007	December 2013
10	Phase VI A	400	Already identified	December 2007	December 2014
11	Phase VII C		Ring roads to be identified	December 2008	December 2014
12	Phase IV C	5000	To be identified	December 2008	December 2014
13	Phase VI B	600	To be identified	December 2008	December 2015
14	Phase IV D	5000	To be identified	December 2009	December 2015

Financing of the National Highway Development Programme.

[edit] Future Plans

The Indian Government has set ambitious plans for upgradation of the National Highways in a phased manner in the years to come. The details are as under:

4-laning of 10,000 km (NHDP Phase- III) including 4,000 km that has been already approved. An accelerated road development programme for the North Eastern region.
2-laning with paved shoulders of 20,000 km of National Highways under NHDP Phase-IV.
6-laning of GQ and some other selected stretches covering 6,500 km under NHDP Phase-V.
Development of 1,000 km of express ways under NHDP Phase-VI.
Development of ring roads, bypasses, grade separators, service roads, etc. under NHDP Phase-VII.