Road System in India: National and State Highways
(By: Arjun Bhaduria, BTM-Ist, KUK)
Roads have been existing in India for
the last 5000 years. In early stages of Indian history, Ashoka and Chandragupta
made efforts to construct roads. But the real progress was made during the
Mughal period.A number of roads were laid during the Sultanate
and Mughal periods. Most of the present trunk routes follow the Mughal routes.
These routes were essential for strengthening and consolidating the empire.
One such
road was constructed by Sher Shah Suri which connected Peshawar to Kolkata. It
was named as Grand Trunk (G.T.) Road and joined Amritsar with Kolkata after
partition of India in 1947. Presently, it is known as ‘Sher Shah Suri Marg’.
Importance of Roads:
- Roads play a very important role in the transportation of goods and passengers for short and medium distance
- It is comparatively easy and cheap to construct and maintain roads.
- Road transport system establishes easy contact between farms, fields, factories and markets and provides door to door service.
- Roads can negotiate high gradients and sharp turns which railways cannot do. As such, roads can be constructed in hilly areas also.
- Roads act as great feeders to railways. Without good and sufficient roads, railways cannot collect sufficient produce to make their operation possible.
- Road transport is more flexible than the railway transport. Buses and trucks may be stopped anywhere and at any time on the road for loading and unloading passengers and goods whereas trains stop only at particular stations.
- Perishable commodities like vegetables, fruits and
milk are transported more easily and quickly by roads than by railways.
Due to
above-mentioned advantages, the road transport has become very popular and its
share is constantly increasing.
Growth and Development:
Road transport in modern sense i.e. vehicles driven by internal combustion engines using petrol or diesel as fuel was practically negligible in India before World War II. Following plans have been drawn to develop roadways in India.
1. Nagpur Plan:
First serious attempt to develop roadways was made in 1943 when Nagpur Plan was drawn. This plan envisaged increasing of the kilometre age of major roads to 1, 96,800 km and of other roads to 3, 32,800 km by 1953. The highlight of the plan was that no village in a developed agricultural region should be more than 8 km from a major road or 3 km away from any other road while the average distance of villages from a major road should be less than 3.2 km.
In a non- agricultural region, these distances were fixed at 32, 8 and 10 km respectively. This plan could not be implemented immediately because the country was ruled by a number of princely states outside British India.
2. Twenty
Year Plan:
After achieving the objectives of the Nagpur Plan, another plan known as Twenty Year Road Plan was drawn in 1961. It aimed at increasing the road length from 6.56 lakh km to 10.60 lakh km and the density to 32 km of road per 100 sq km by 1981.
The other objectives of the Twenty Year Road Plan were (i) to bring every village in a developed agricultural area within 6.4 km of a metalled road and 2.4 km of any other road, (ii) to bring every village in a semi-developed area within 12.8 km of a metalled road and (iii) to bring every village in an undeveloped and uncultivated area within 19.2 km of a metalled road and 8 km of any other road.
3. The Rural Development Plan includes construction of rural roads under Minimum Needs Programme (MNP), Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP), Jawaharlal Rojgar Yojana (JRY) and Command Area Development (CAD) programmes to connect all villages having a population of 1,500 or more with all-weather roads and those having less than 1,500 population with a link roads.
4. Build Operate Transfer (ВОТ) is a scheme under which private operators are invited to construct roads and bridges. They are allowed to collect toll tax from the vehicles using these roads and bridges for a specific period of time after which these assets are transferred to the government. The National Highways Act has been amended to facilitate private investment in real construction under ВОТ scheme.
5. Central Road Fund (CRF) is being raised for the betterment of roads by imposing additional excise/customs duty at the rate of Rs. 1.50 per litre on petrol with effect from 2 June 1998 and on High Speed Diesel (HSD) with effect from February 28, 1999. The annual accrual through this sources will be about Rs. 5,500 crore. A part of this (Rs. 0.4 per litre against sale of high speed diesel oil and Rs 0.86 per litre against sale of petrol) goes to fund the NHDP.
The Central Road Fund Act 2000 was enacted in December, 2000 with the primary objective of providing regular and adequate flow of funds for development of the road sector. This is a non- lapsable fund. The Act empowers the Centre to administer, manage and allocate the accrued amount to the following:
(i) Development of rural roads. About 43 per cent of the levy on diesel will be spent on improving rural connectivity,
(ii) Development and maintenance of National Highways,
(iii) Construction of road under/over bridges and safety works at unmanned railway crossings, and
(iv) Development and maintenance of State roads.
The main significance of the Nagpur Plan lies in the fact that it classified roads into four categories on the functional basis. They are: (i) National Highways (ii) State Highways (iii) District Roads and (iv) Village Roads. A brief description of each category is given as under:
1. National
Highways:
The main roads which are constructed and maintained by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) are known as the National Highways. These roads are meant for inter-state and strategic defence movements and connect the state capitals, big cities, important ports, big railway junctions and link up with border roads.
The National Highways Authority of India was constituted by an act of Parliament, the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988. It is responsible for the development, maintenance and management of National Highways entrusted to it and for matters connected or incidental thereto. The Authority was operationalised in Feb, 1995.
The length of National Highways increased from 19,811 km in 1951 to 33,650 km in 1991 and 49,585 km in 1999. Currently, the total length of the National Highways in India is 65,569 kilometres. National Highways form the lifeline of road transport and constitute the framework of road system in India. Although the percentage share of the National Highways to the total road length has decreased considerably from 4.95 per cent in 1951 to only 1.96 per cent in 1999, they carry nearly 40 per cent of the road traffic of India.
Distribution of National Highways:
A number of national highways run across the country in all directions linking important places to one another. The historically important Sher Shah Sun Marg is known as National Highway 1. It links Delhi and Amritsar. National Highway 2 links Delhi and Kolkata. National Highway 3 runs between Agra and Mumbai via Gwalior, Indore and Nasik.
Table of India: Some Important National Highways:
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16.
|
Barmer-Samkhiyali-Jagdalpur
|
460
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17.
|
Panvel-Mangalore-Edapalli
|
1269
|
18.
|
Kumool-Nandyal-Cuddapah-Chittoor
|
369
|
20.
|
Pathankot-Mandi
|
220
|
21.
|
Chandigarh-Ropar-Mandi-Kulu-Manali
|
323
|
22.
|
Ambala-Kalka-Shimla-Narkanda-Rampur-Chini
|
462
|
23.
|
Chas-Ranchi-Rourkela-Talwar
|
459
|
24.
|
Delhi-Bareilly-Lucknow
|
438
|
25.
|
Lucknow-Kanpur-Jhansi-Shivpuri
|
319
|
26.
|
Jhansi-Lakhnaden
|
396
|
27.
|
Allahabad-Mangawan
|
93
|
28.
|
Barauni-Muzaffarpur-Gorakhpur-Lucknow
|
570
|
28A.
|
Pipra-Sagauli-Razaul
|
68
|
29
|
Gorakhpur-Ghazipur-Varanasi
|
198
|
30.
|
Mohania-Patna-Bakhtiyarpur
|
230
|
31.
|
Bakhtiyarpur-Siliguri-Nalbari-Aminagaon
|
1125
|
31 A.
|
Sivok-Gangtok
|
92
|
32.
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Govindpur-Dhanbad-Jamshedpur
|
179
|
33.
|
Barhi-Ranchi
|
352
|
34.
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Dalkhola-Barasat-Kolkata
|
443
|
35.
|
Barasat-Bangaon
|
61
|
36.
|
Nagaon-Dabaka-Dimapur
|
170
|
37.
|
Goalpara-Guwahati-Kamargaon-Saikhoa Ghat
|
680
|
38.
|
Makum-Ledo-Lekhapani
|
54
|
39.
|
Numiligarh-Imphal-Palel
|
436
|
40.
|
Jorhat-Shillong-Dawki
|
161
|
41.
|
Kolaghat-Haldia
|
51
|
42.
|
Sambalpur-Angul-Cuttack
|
261
|
43.
|
Raipur-Vizianagaram
|
560
|
44.
|
Shillong-Passi-Badarpur-Agartala
|
495
|
45.
|
Chennai-Tiruchchirappalli-Dindigul
|
387
|
46.
|
Krishnagiri-Ranipet
|
132
|
47.
|
Salem-Coimbatore-Thiruvananthapuram-Kanniyakumari
|
640
|
48.
|
Bangalore-Hassan-Mangalore
|
328
|
49.
|
Kochi-Madurai-Dhanushknodi
|
440
|
50.
|
Nashik-Pune
|
192
|
51.
|
Pekana-Tura-Dalu
|
149
|
52.
|
В aihata-Charali-T ezpur-Lakhimpur-
Sekhoaghat
|
850
|
53.
|
Badarpur-Zirighat-Imphal-Silchar
|
320
|
54.
|
Silchar-Aizawl
|
560
|
55.
|
Siliguri-Darjeeling
|
77
|
56.
|
Lucknow-Varanasi
|
285
|
(i) The Golden quadrilateral (5,846 km) connecting four major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
(ii) The North-South and East-West corridors (7,300 km) connecting Srinagar in the North to Kanniyakumari in the South and Silchar in the East to Porbandar in the West.
(iii) Port connectivity and other Projects (1,133 km).
1. Golden Quadrilateral Super Highway:
National Highways Development Project (NHDP) has taken up a massive programme of road building in the country. Launched on January 2, 1999, this is perhaps one of the largest programmes of road development ever taken up in the country. The project is being implemented by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). NHDP has following two components.
(i) Phase I — Golden Quadrilateral:
Comprising National Highways connecting Delhi — Mumbai—Chennai—Kolkata—Delhi by six-lane super highways. This component has a total length of 5,846 km of which 1,326 km length has already been completed.The four sides of the quadrilateral have varying length. The side of quadrilateral between Delhi and Mumbai is 1419 km long, Mumbai to Chennai is 1,290 km long, and Chennai to Kolkata is the longest side which is 1,684 km long. The side between Kolkata and Delhi is 1,453 km long.
The Golden Quadrilateral is a highway
network connecting many of the major industrial, agricultural and cultural
centres of India. A quadrilateral of sorts is formed by connecting Chennai,
Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai, and hence its name. Other metropolises also
connected by the network are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Kanpur,
Pune, Surat, Nellore, Vijayawada and Guntur
Comprising the National Highways connecting Srinagar to Kanniyakumari including Kochi-Salem Spur and East-West corridor comprising the National Highways connecting Silchar in Assam and Porbandar in Gujarat.
The project has a total length of about 7,300 km, out of which the North-South corridor is 4,000 km and East-West corridor is 3,300 km long. It is scheduled for completion by December, 2007.
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As on January 31, 2005, 5,418 km of NHDP has been completed, the bulk of which (4,480 km) lie on Golden Quadrilateral (Table 28.12). The expenditure so far has amounted to Rs. 24,174 crore. About 2,678 km road length is under construction.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is also implementing four laning of 361 km for connectivity to 10 major ports of the country. Connectivity to Kandla Port has been completed. The works related to development of connectivity Mormugao, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Vishakhapatnam Port, Haldia Port, Tuticorin Port, Paradwip Port and Cochin Port are in progress. Contract has been awarded for civil work for New Mangalore Port and Chennai Ennore Port.
A programme for Improvement of Riding Quality of National Highways was initiated in 1999. At that time it was assessed that about 33,000 km of National Highways (the then balance length apart from NHDP) needed improvement of riding quality. Up to March 2004, estimates for about entire length of National Highways have been sanctioned.
Apart from Improvement of Riding Quality Programme, other works like widening and strengthening, construction of bypasses and rehabilitation/construction of bridges, etc. have also been undertaken for stretches not covered under NHDP.
(iii) Phase III of NHDP:
The NHDP Phase III, proposed to take up rehabilitation and upgradation of about 10,000 km of existing National Highways to 4-lane dual carriageway configurations on a ВОТ basis. Identification of these stretches is proposed on the following principles:
(i) Corridors having high density of traffic.
(ii) Connectivity of State capitals with the NHDP Phase I and II network.
(iii) Connectivity to places of economic, commercial and tourist importance.
The implementation of entire 10,000 stretches has been entrusted to NHAI. Preparation of Detailed Project Reports of these segments has begun. As of now 5,931 km have been identified for implementation of four-laning on ВОТ basis by NHAI.
Accelerated North-East Road Development Project is being proposed for the development of roads in this region. The main purpose is to provide connectivity to all the State capitals and district headquarters including 4-laning of 315 km of National Highways between Nagao and Dibrugarh and 2/4 laning of 288 km of National Highways in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim. Other stretches considered critical for economic development are also included in this proposal.
(iv) Phase IV of NHDP:
This is a new initiative which aims at providing balanced and equitable distribution of improving/widening highway network throughout the country by upgrading 21,000 km of single lane roads to 2 lane road with paved shoulders and for strengthening of 17,000 km of existing 2-lane highways and construction of paved shoulders.
2. State
Highways:
These are constructed and maintained by state governments and join the state capitals with district headquarters and other important towns. These roads are also connected to the national highways. The length of state roadways in India has more than doubled within a span of about three decades and has increased from 56,765 km in 1971 to 1, 37,950 km in 1999. These roads constitute 5.46 per cent of the total road length of India.
Although construction and maintenance of state highways is the responsibility” of the concerned state governments, yet with the revamping of the Central Road Fund (CRF) in 2000, the Centre provides about Rs. 1,000 crore for development of state roads.
Further, to promote inter-state facilities and also to assist the State Governments in their economic development through construction of roads and bridges, Central Government provides 100 per cent grant for inter-state connectivity and 50 per cent grant for projects of economic importance from CRF. Loan assistance from external funding agency is also taken by some states.
The distribution of State Highways is very uneven. Maharashtra (33,223 km) had the longest length of state highways in 1999. Next to Gujarat (19,796 km), Madhya Pradesh (11,789 km) Rajasthan (10,047 km), and Andhra Pradesh (8,763 km). Smaller states such as Goa and states in hi у areas like Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagaland, Tripura, etc. have less than five hundred km length of State Highways.
3. District
Roadways:
These roads join the district headquarters with the other places of the district. Development and maintenance of these roads fall within the purview of Zila Parishads. There has been more than four and half times increase in the length of district roadways from 1, 73,723 km in 1951 to 8 01 ,655 km in 1999.
In 1999, these roads accounted for 31.74 per cent of the total road length of India. Formerly most of the district roads were unsurfaced and lacked bridges and culverts. But now the situation as changed and most of these roads are surfaced. Such a situation has improved connectivity and pave way for economic development.
Length of Highways (as on 31st March, 1999):
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4. Village
Roads:
The village roads are mainly the responsibility of village panchayats and connect the villages with the neighbouring towns and cities. These are generally dusty tracks and are usable only during the lair weather. They become muddy and unserviceable during the rainy season.
Efforts have been made in the recent past to connect the villages with metalled roads. The length of these roads has increased by about 5 times from 2, 06,408 km in 1951 to 10, 28,410 km in 1999. These roads accounted for over 40 per cent of the total road length of the country in 1999.
Still about 10 per cent of the villages having a population of 1,000 or more and 60 per cent of the villages with less than 1,000 people are not connected by all-weather roads. The network needs expansion and upgradation of existing roads to all- weather roads.
A new thrust was given to village roads when the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) was launched in December 2000. This is a 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme to provide rural connectivity to unconnected habitants with a population of 500 persons or more (250 persons in case of hilly, desert and tribal areas) in rural areas by the end of the Tenth Plan period.
The scope о PMGSY has been expanded to include both construction of new links and upgradation of existing through routes associated with such link routes to form one complete sub-network for providing connectivity between the village and the market.
A survey undertaken to identify the “core network as part of PMGSY showed that over 1.70 lakh unconnected habitations needed to be undertaken under this programme. This would require new construction of 3.68 lakh kilometres of rural roads at a total cost of Rs. 1, 33,000 crore.
Geographical Distribution of Roads:
The network of roads is more or less similar to that of railways, although former far excels the later with respect to kilometre age. A look at Figure 28.2 and Table 28.14 shows that there are great variations in the distribution pattern of roads in India.
As mentioned earlier, Madhya Pradesh (along with Chhattisgarh) possesses the longest length of National Highways, followed by the Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Incidentally these are larger states with high density of population and comparatively advanced stage of industrial growth.
However, length of National Highways passing through a state is not always a true index of economic wellbeing of a state as they serve only the main routes. For example, Madhya Pradesh has longest route length о the national highways and still has some of the most backward areas which are located far away from the main road routes.
The length of state highways could be a better index of road accessibility at the state level. T e picture is slightly different with regard to state highways when compared to that of the national highways.
Table 28.13 shows that Maharashtra with 33,223 km long route length is the best served state by the state highways. Gujarat is a distant second with 19,796 km length of state highways. The other states with sufficiently long route length of state highways are Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan, Karnataka Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. The northern-eastern states do not have sufficient route length of state highways.
The nature of roads, rather than their total length is more significant from the utility point of view. The largest concentration of roads is found in the Northern Plain, especially in West Bengal and in the Punjab-Haryana plain. But the ratio of surfaced road to the total road length is lower in the Northern Plain than the national average.
For example, Bihar and West Bengal are the two large states in the plain but have only 42.32 per cent and 56.48 per cent of surfaced roads to the total length of roads respectively. Uttar Pradesh with 68.74 per cent of the surfaced roads is in a slightly better position Punjab and Haryana are the two richest states of the country and have 100 per cent and 94.83 per cent of the surfaced roads respectively.
The main cause of small proportion of surfaced roads in the Northern Plain is that it is made up of sand, silt and clay and there is shortage of stone for constructing surfaced roads. In contrast, the proportion of surfaced roads is much higher in the Peninsular plateau area because it is composed of hard rocks and stone for constructing roads is readily available here in plenty Gujarat (93.95%), Maharashtra (79.68%), Goa (61.00%) are some of the states having higher than the national average of 60.33 per cent. Orissa presents an anomaly and is the poorest of all the states where surfaced roads account for less than one third of the total length of roads.
Among the Himalayan states Sikkim with 86.11 per cent is at the top and this is followed by 70.97 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir. All other Himalayan states have surfaced roads less than the national average. Among the union territories, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu. Delhi and Lakshadweep have 100 per cent surfaced route. This is followed by 97.47 per cent in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and 77.09 per cent in Pondicherry.
Problems and Prospects:
Road transportation in India faces a number of problems. Keeping in view the vastness of the dimensions of the country, her physiography, her unlimited natural resources and the fast growing passenger and freight traffic, the inadequacy of the road network is quite glaring. India s road length of 75.01 km per 100 sq km of area is desperately low as compared to 294.6 km in Japan, 131.2 km in Austria, 451.8 km in Belgium, 147.2 km in France and 172.2 km in Switzerland Again India has low road length of 240.1 km per one lakh population as against 893.6 in Japan 497.2 in Malaysia 1277.7 in Saudi Arabia, 1392.4 in Austria, 1556 in Hungary, 1572.4 in Sweden, 2494.5 in the USA, 3184.9 m Canada, 4635.4 in Australia and 2705.7 in New Zealand. Lakhs of villages in remote areas are still awaiting a road to reach them.
Another problem is that a little less than half of the roads (40%) are unsurfaced. They can be used only in fair weather and become muddy and unfit for transportation during the rainy season. Efforts need to be made to construct as many surfaced roads as is practically possible.
The national highway network will have to be improved to meet the growing traffic of men and materials A large section has insufficient road pavement thickness. Other deficiencies are inadequate capacity; poor riding quality, weak and distressed bridges/culverts, congested city sections too many railway level crossings, lack of wayside amenities and weak road safety measures.
About 20 per cent of national highways need widening from single to double lanes and 70 per cent of two lane roads have to be strengthened and selected corridors on national highways need conversion into expressways.
This is clearly an enormous task and needs huge capital investment which is beyond the capacity in the public sector. Consequently, National Highway Act was amended in 1995 for encouraging private sector to participate in the construction, maintenance and operation of roads on Build, Operate and Transfer (ВОТ) basis.
The future challenge in road sector revolves around building all-weather roads connecting each and every village to a State Highway or a National Highway. It is imperative to strengthen the road infrastructure for carrying rapidly increasing volumes of agricultural products to the consuming centres in the near future. Rural development is closely associated with road development. Another very important factor to be considered is the rapidly growing population of motor vehicles and increasing commerce. The number of registered vehicles increased from 306 thousand in 1950-51 to 58,863 thousand in 2001-02, thereby registering about 210 times increase in a span of half a century (Table 28.15).
However, carrying capacity of our roads has not been able to keep with the increase in vehicles. This has led to traffic jams, delays and environmental pollution. The most disturbing factor is that population of motor vehicles is likely to increase at an accelerated rate in the near future. As such there is an urgent need to take steps to increase the capacity of roads.
Building adequate road infrastructure to accelerate the pace of economic progress is an uphill task and requires huge sums of money. The current estimates suggest that the cost of a four-lane highway works out roughly Rs. 4.5 crore per kilometre and the cost of a protected access, six-lane express way works out roughly Rs. 8.5 crore per kilometre. Funds on such a gigantic scale are managed by encouraging private participation. World Bank and imposing cess on fuel, etc.
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