Indian highways
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In India, the National Highways are the primary long-distance roadways. They are maintained by the Central Government, and the majority are two-lane (one in each direction). They span about 67,000 km, of which about 200 km are expressways. Indian highways constitute approximately 2% of the total road network of India, but carry nearly 40% of the total traffic.[1] The National Highways Development Project, currently being implemented, seeks to massively expand India's highway network.
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[edit] Current system
The National Highways Bill, passed in 1995, provides for private investment in the building and maintenance of the highways. Recently, a number of new roads have been classified as "NHs" in a move to provide national connectivity even to remote places. Bypasses have also recently been constructed around larger towns and cities to provide uninterrupted passage for highway traffic. The varied climactic, demographic, traffic, and sometimes political situation, prevents these highways from having a uniform character. They range from fully-paved, six-lane roads in some areas, to unpaved stretches in remote places. Many NH's are still being upgraded or are under construction. There are long NH's to connect the metros together, as well as short spurs off the highway to provide connectivity to nearby ports or harbors. The longest National Highway is the NH7,[2] which runs between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, at the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, covering a distance of 2369 km, and passing through various metros like Jabalpur, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The shortest NH is the NH47A,[3] which spans 6 km, to the Ernakulam - Kochi Port.
India has a vast network of National Highways. India's highways connect all the major cities and state capitals. Most are 2-lane highways. In some more developed areas they may broaden to 4 lanes, while close to big cities, highways can sometimes expand to 8 lanes. India has the distinction of having the world's second highest-altitude motor highway[4][5], Leh-Manali Highway, connecting Shimla to Leh in Ladakh, Kashmir.
All such national highways are paved roads. In most developed states the roads are generally free of potholes. In less-developed states and in sparsely populated areas however, highways are often riddled with potholes. Very few of India's highways are concrete, the most notable being the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
Highways form the economic backbone of the country. Highways have often facilitated development along their routes, and many new towns have sprung up along major highways. Highways are dotted with local restaurants or inns popularly known as Dhabas. They serve popular local cuisine and also serve as truck stops.
Under former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, India launched a massive program of highway upgrades, called the National Highway Development Project (NHDP), in which the main north-south and east-west connecting corridors and highways connecting the four metropolitan cities have been fully paved and widened into 4-lane highways.
Some of the Busy National Highway sectors in India have been converted to 4 or 6 lane expressways – for example, Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Jaipur, Ahmedabad-Vadodara, Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Surat, Bangalore-Mysore, Bangalore-Chennai, Chennai-Tada, Hyderabad-Vijayawada and Guntur-Vijayawada. Phase V of the National Highway Development Project is to convert all 6000 km of the Golden Quadrilateral Highways to 6-lane highways/expressways by 2012.
[edit] Express highways
- Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway was India's first expressway. It was originally planned during the 1970's, but was delayed for decades due to land-usage and political issues. These issues were resolved in the 1990's, and the expressway opened in 2001. The expressway cuts the journey between the two cities to less than 1 hour. This expressway was India's first 4-lane and dual carriageway expressway project, and includes minor bridges and canal crossings, interchanges at Nadiad and Anand, cross-drainage works, rest areas, and related structures, for a length of 92.85 km. [6][7]
- Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway - This expressway opened completely for the public on Jan 23, 2008, and is part of Golden Quadrilateral highway project. This expressway is expected to reduce travel time between Gurgaon and Delhi from upwards of 60 minutes to approximately 20 minutes. Some special features of this highway are SOS telephones every 1.5 km, CCTV surviliance, and a 32-lane toll plaza at the Delhi-Haryana border. The highway will be categorized into three parts: the VIP zone (up to the IGI Airport), the Urban section (up to Gurgaon), and Trucker's Paradise (after Gurgaon).[8]
- Ganga Expressway - This project was announced in 2007 by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. At 1000 km, it will be India's longest expressway. It will link Noida, on Uttar Pradesh's western border with Delhi to Ballia, on Uttar Pradesh's eastern border with Bihar. The expressway wil run along the left bank of the Ganga river, in contrast to the Grand Trunk Road which is on the right bank. The expected cost is Rs 40,000 crore ($10 billion). This expressway should reduce the travel time between Delhi and Varanasi to 8 hours. The project is expected to be completed in 2011.[9]
- Mumbai-Pune Expressway - The Mumbai-Pune Expressway is India's first 6-lane, concrete, high-speed, tolled, access-controlled expressway. It connects Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, to the neighboring educational and information technology-oriented city of Pune. With its smoothly paved concrete construction, this highway is unlike most other roads in India, where traffic is chaotic and aggressive driving is the norm. This high speed motorway largely follows established traffic patterns and offers a scenic drive between Mumbai and Pune, while cutting the travel time between these two commercially important Western Indian cities from 4 - 5 hours on the old NH4, to 2 - 3 hours. Mumbai Pune Expressway
- Highway features
- 6-lane concrete highway with 7m-wide divider. An extra lane provided on each side as a hard shoulder.
- Separate tunnels for traffic in each direction.
- Complete fencing to avoid humans/animals crossing the expressway.
- No two-wheelers, three-wheelers, or tractor vehicles allowed.
- Provision of petrol pumps, motels, workshops, toilets, emergency phones, first aid, breakdown vans, etc.
- Proposed planting of 80,000 trees along the Expressway.
- Highway features
- Shimla-Chandigarh Expressway - The expansion to 4 lanes of Shimla-Chandigarh National Highway 22 (NH22) will eventually result in the formation of the Shimla-Chandigarh Expressway.[10]
- Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, also known as Taj Expressway, connects Noida, an industrial sub-urb area to Greater Noida a new suburb. This expressway is under going expansion to Taj Economic Zone, International Airport and Aviation Hub proposed to be constructed along the Taj Expressway. The objectives of the proposed expressway are as follows:
- Highway features
- To provide a fast moving corridor to minimize the travel time
- To connect the main town ships / commercial centers on the Eastern site of river Yamuna
- To ensure development of adjoining area
- To relieve NH-2 which is already congested and runs through the heart of cities like Faridabad, Ballabhgarh and Palwal
- Highway features
- Delhi-Noida Express Highway is a eight-lane access controlled tolled expressway which connects Delhi to Noida, an industrial sub-urb area. It was built and is maintained by the Noida Toll Bridge Company Limited (NTBCL). NTBCL was developed under a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOP) model. The project included the construction of a flyover at Ashram Chowk. The other major part of the project was the construction of a 552.5 meter bridge over the Yamuna river. This bridge, which was estimated to cost Rs. 408 Crore.
[edit] Indian road network
| Class | Length (km) |
|---|---|
| Access Controlled Expressways | 200 |
| 4-6 lane Divided Expressways (with service rd in crowded areas) | 4850 |
| National Highways | 66,590 |
| State Highways | 1,31,899 |
| Major district roads | 4,67,763 |
| Rural & other roads | 26,50,000 |
| Total (approx) | 33,00,000 |
[edit] Historical development
In ancient times the ruling monarchs constructed many brick roads in cities. The most famous highway of medieval India was the Grand Trunk Road. The Grand Trunk Road begins in Sonargaon[12]near Dhaka, Bangladesh and ends in Peshawar, Pakistan. It travels through several important Indian cities, such as Kolkata, Patna, Varanasi, Kanpur, Agra, Delhi, Panipat, Pipli, Ambala, Rajpura, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Amritsar. In the 19th century, the British upgraded the existing highway network, and built roads in treacherous areas such as the Western Ghats.
[edit] See also
- National Highways Development Project
- List of National Highways in India
- List of National Highways in India (by Highway Number)
- Border Roads Organisation
- National Highways Authority of India
[edit] References and notes
- ^ Contemporary India - II, NCERT Social Science textbook, 2005 Edition,
Road Network Assessment by National Highway Authority of India - ^ Maps of India
- ^ List Kerala,
India9.com - ^ http://www.tourism-of-india.com/mountain-biking.html
- ^ http://www.roughguides.com/website/travel/destination/content/default.aspx?titleid=3&xid=idh333055304_0550
- ^ Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway Project
- ^ Ahmedabad-Baroda expressway
- ^ Times of India article - dated Jun 25' 2005,
Delhi Newsline article - dated June 28' 2007,
Road Traffic Technology article - ^ Hidustan Times article - dated September 05' 2007
- ^ The Tribune article - dated July 19' 2005
- ^ Road Network report by National Highway Authority of India
- ^ Article on Archnet
