State-of-the-Art of Road Transport India

Indian roads carry 85 per cent of the passenger and 70 per cent of the freight traffic of the country. The highways, even though they make up only 2 per cent of the road network by length, carry 40 per cent of this traffic. For many years, India lagged behind many countries of the world which built expressways capable of sustained speeds of over 100 kilometer per hour (kph).

In recent years, a concerted effort has been undertaken, through new institutional arrangements and improved highway engineering, founded on a revenue model comprising tolls and a cess on fuel, to build roads which deliver 80 kph sustained performance.

Under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) - the largest highway project ever undertaken by the country and with the shortest time span for completion - 14,279 kilometer of National highways are to be converted to 4/6-lanes, at a total estimated cost of Rs. 65,000 crore (at 2004 prices).

The NHDP consists of the following components:

(i) The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ-5,846 kilometer) connecting the four major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

(ii) The North-South and East-West Corridors (NS-EW – 7,300 kilometer) connecting Srinagar in the North to Kanyakumari in the South and Silchar in the East to Porbandar in the West.

More information on http://www.nhai.org/, http://morth.nic.in/