Indian road network

India has a road network of over 5,472,144 kilometres (3,400,233 mi) as on 31 March 2015, the
second largest road network in the world. At 1.66 km of roads per square kilometre of land, the
quantitative density of India's road network is higher than that of Japan (0.91) and the United States
(0.67), and far higher than that of China (0.46), Brazil (0.18) or Russia (0.08). [1] However, qualitatively
India's roads are a mix of modern highways and narrow, unpaved roads, and are being improved.
[2]
As on 31 March 2015, 61.05% of Indian roads were paved. [3]
Adjusted for its large population, India has less than 3.8 kilometres of roads per 1000 people,
including all its paved and unpaved roads. In terms of quality, all season, 4 or more lane highways,
India has less than 0.07 kilometres of highways per 1000 people, as of 2010. These are some of the
lowest road and highway densities in the world. For context, United States has 21 kilometres of
roads per 1000 people, while France about 15 kilometres per 1000 people – predominantly paved
and high quality in both cases. In terms of all season, 4 or more lane highways, developed countries
such as United States and France have a highway density per 1000 people that is over 15 times as
India.
India in its past did not allocate enough resources to build or maintain its road network. [2] This has
changed since 1995, with major efforts currently underway to modernize the country's road
infrastructure.[4]

Vijayawada-Guntur Expressway in Andhra Pradesh

NH76: Part of India's recently completed 4-lane Golden Quadrilateral highway network

NH75: Part of India's NS-EW Corridor highway network spanning 7000 kilometres
As of May 2017, India had completed and placed in use over 28,900 kilometres of recently built 4 or
6-lane highways connecting many of its major manufacturing centres, commercial and cultural
centres.[5] According to the CIA World Factbook, as of 2015, India had about 96,000 kilometers of
national highways and expressways, plus another 147,800 kilometers of state highways. [6] Major
projects are being implemented under the National Highways Development Project, a government
initiative. Private builders and highway operators are also implementing major projects - for example,
the Yamuna Expressway between Delhi and Agra was completed ahead of schedule and within
budget,[7]while the KMP Expressway started in 2006 is far behind schedule, over budget and
incomplete.[8]
According to 2009 estimates by Goldman Sachs, India will need to invest US$1.7 trillion on
infrastructure projects before 2020 to meet its economic needs, a part of which would be in
upgrading India's road network.[9] The Government of India is attempting to promote foreign
investment in road projects.[9][10][11] Foreign participation in Indian road network construction has
attracted 45 international contractors and 40 design/engineering consultants, with Malaysia, South
Korea, United Kingdom and United States being the largest players.[12]

History[edit]
India highway density map in lane kilometers[13] per 100,000 people as of 2012. India's average was 7.7 lane
km per 100,000, compared to Japan's 49 lane km, and USA's 114 lane km per 100,000 people. Bihar, Uttar
Pradesh and West Bengal had the lowest lane kilometer densities in India. [14]

The first evidence of road development in the Indian subcontinent can be traced back to
approximately 2800 BC from the ancient cities of Harrapa and Mohenjodaro of the Indus Valley
Civilization. Ruling emperors and monarchs of ancient India had constructed roads to connect the
cities. Archaeological excavations give us fresh information about road connectivity in ancient India.
The Grand Trunk Road was built by Sher Shah Suri in 1540-45 connecting Sonargaon near Dhaka
in Bangladesh with Peshawar in modern-day Pakistan linking several cities from in India.[15]
India inherited a poor road network infrastructure at the time of its independence in 1947. Beyond
that, between 1947 and 1988, India witnessed no new major projects, and the roads were poorly
maintained. Predominantly all roads were single lane, and most were unpaved. India had no
expressways, and less than 200 kilometers of 4-lane highways. In 1988, an autonomous entity
called the National Highways Authority of India was established in India by an Act of Parliament, and
came into existence on 15 June 1989. The Act empowered this entity to develop, maintain and
manage India's road network through National Highways. However, even though the Authority was
created in 1988, not much happened till India introduced widespread economic liberalization in the
early 1990s. Since 1995, the authority has privatized road network development in India, and by May
2014 delivered a state wise lengths of over 92,851 kilometers of National Highways, of which 22,757
kilometers are 4-lane or 6-lane modern highways.[5][16][17]

Overview[edit]
A national highway between western Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan.

A road in rural area at Chinawalvillage near Satpura range in Maharashtra

A National Highway at Telanganaand Chhattisgarh state border

Road transport is vital to India's economy. It enables the country's transportation sector to contribute
4.7 percent towards India’s gross domestic product, in comparison to railways that contributed 1
percent, in 2009–2010. Road transport has gained its importance over the years despite significant
barriers and inefficiencies in inter-state freight and passenger movement compared to railways and
air. The government of India considers road network as critical to the country's development, social
integration and security needs of the country.[18] India's road network carries over 65 percent of its
freight and about 85 percent of passenger traffic.[19]
Indian road network is administered by various government authorities, given India's federal form of
government. The following table shows the total length of India's road network by type of road as on
31 March 2015.[1]

Road Authority responsible Length Share of

 classification (km) network length

National
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways 97,991 1.79 %
Highways

State Highways Public Works Department of State/Union Territory 167,109 3.05 %

Other PWD
Public Works Department of State/Union Territory 1,101,178 20.12 %
roads

Rural roads Panchayats, JRY and PMGSY 3,337,255 61 %

Urban roads Local governments and municipalities 467,106 8.54 %

Various State/Union territory government departments,

Project roads 301,505 5.50 %
and SAIL, NMDC and BRO

Total N/A 5,472,144 100 %

Statistics[edit]

A highway connecting Jaipur and New Delhi

Hyderabad ORR Expressway towards Hyderabad Airport

National Highway 11 connecting Jaipur and Agra opened in 2013

In general, roads in India are primarily bitumen-based macadamised roads. However, a few of the
National Highways have concrete roads too. In some locations, such as in Kanpur, British-built
concrete roads are still in use. Concrete roads were less popular prior to the 1990s because of low
availability of cement then. However, with large supplies of cement in the country and the virtues of
concrete roads, they are gaining popularity. Concrete roads are durable, weather-proof and require
lower maintenance compared to bituminous roads. Moreover, new concrete pavement technology
has developed such as cool pavement, quiet pavement and permeable pavement, which has
rendered it more attractive and eco-friendly.
The National Highways are the backbone of the road infrastructure and the major roads in India.
They carry most of India's freight and passenger traffic. State highways and major district roads
constitute the secondary and interconnecting roads in India. The sortable table below lists national
highway density in India per state or union territory.[20][21] Included for context and comparison are
major road density of several developed economies.[22][23]

Roads[edit]
Expressways[edit]
Main article: Expressways in India

Mumbai Pune Expressway

Expressways make up approximately 1,208 km (751 mi) of India's road network, as of 2013.[24]
[25]
These high-speed roads are four-lane or six-lane, predominantly access controlled. The 165
kilometer Yamuna Expressway, India's longest six-laned controlled-access opened on 9 August
2012.[26]
While the start of several expressway projects such as the Ganga Expressway have been delayed
for 3 or more years, because of litigation and bureaucratic procedures, India expects another 3,530
kilometres of expressways to come up by 2014 from the projects under construction. The
government has drawn up a target to lay 18,637 kilometre network of brand new expressways by
2022.[27] Most of the existing expressways in India are toll roads.[25]
National Highways[edit]
Main article: National Highway (India)

Stretch of North–South Corridor highway between Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu

NH7 – section of NSEW Corridor highway in South India

National Highway 16 (old NH 5) running through Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh is a part of Golden
Quadrilateral highway network

The main highways running through the length and breadth of the country connecting major ports,
state capitals, large industrial and tourist centres, etc. National Highways in India are designated as
NH followed by the highway number. Indian national highways are further classified based on the
width of carriageway of the highway. As of March 2012, India had completed and placed in use the
following newly built highways:[28]
 5,846 kilometres of its 4-lane Golden Quadrilateral highway,

 6,310 kilometres of its 4-lane North–South and East–West Corridor highway,

 353 kilometres of 4-lane port connectivity highways,

 4,553 kilometres of 4-lane inter-capital highways,

 961 kilometres of 4-lane bypass and other national highways.

The above 17,700 kilometres of highways connect most of the major manufacturing centers,
commercial and cultural cities of India.[29] The National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) is the
authority responsible for the development, maintenance and management of National Highways
entrusted to it. The NHAI is undertaking the developmental activities under National Highways
Development Project (NHDP) in 5 phases. The NHAI is also responsible for implementing other
projects on National Highways, primarily road connectivity to major ports in India.
As of June 2012, under Phase I, II, III and V of India's national effort has already finished and put in
use about 18,000 kilometers of 4/6 lane highways. The country is in process of building an additional
33,441 kilometers of 4 to 6 lanes, international quality highways throughout India. Of this target,
about 13,700 kilometers of modern highways were under implementation in June 2012, and about
18,000 kilometers of highways have been identified for contract award. [5] India road building rate has
accelerated in recent years and averaged about 11 kilometers per day in second half of 2011. The
country targets to build 600 kilometers of modern roads every month through 2014.

National Highway classification[5][30]

Lanes Length (km) Percentage

Single Lane / Intermediate lane 18,350 26%

Double lane 36031 51%

Four Lane/Six lane/Eight Lane 16,553 23%

Total 70,934 100%

State Highways[edit]
Main article: State highways in India
State Governments have the authority and responsibility to build road networks and state highways.
Independent of the NHDP program, state governments have been implementing a number of state
highway projects since 2000. By 2010, state highway projects worth $1.7 billion had been
completed, and an additional $11.4 billion worth of projects were under implementation. [31] The State
Highways provide linkages with the National Highways, district headquarters, important towns,
tourist centers and minor ports and carry the traffic along major centers within the state. Their total
length is about 137,712 km.[32]
Major District Roads[edit]

A district road in Kerala

These are important roads within a district connecting areas of production with markets and
connecting them with the State Highways & National Highways. It also connects Talukaheadquarters
and rural areas to District headquarters within the state.

India has been adding paved single lane rural roads under its PMGSY initiative launched in 2000.[33]

Rural Roads
The rural roads in India forms a substantial portion of the Indian road network. These roads are in
poor shape, affecting the rural population's quality of life and Indian farmers' ability to transfer
produce to market post-harvest. Over 30 percent of Indian farmers' harvests spoil post-harvest
because of the poor infrastructure. Many rural roads are of poor quality, potholed, and unable to
withstand the loads of heavy farm equipment. These roads are also far from all-season, good quality
2-lane or 4-lane highways, making economic resource flow slow, and logistical costs between
different parts of India one of the highest in the world. For the development of these rural
roads, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (or "Prime Minister Rural Roads Scheme"), was
launched in December 2000 by the Indian government to provide connectivity to unconnected rural
habitations. The scheme envisions that these roads will be constructed and maintained by the village
panchayats. In some parts of India, where the government has attempted to manage it directly as a
local social spending program, this program has produced limited results and no lasting change over
10 years, in either the quality or quantity of rural road network.[34]
In other parts of India, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and a sister program named Bharat
Nirman (or Build India) have privatized the rural road construction projects and deployed contractors.
The effort has aimed to build all-season, single lane, paved asphalted roads that connect India's
rural and remote areas. A significant portion of funding for these projects has come from the World
Bank and Asian Development Bank.[35] This has produced results, which are presented in the table
below.
 Rural road network in India, trends over 10 years[33]

Kilometers Kilometers Kilometers

in 2001 as of May 2011 under construction in 2011

Total rural roads 2.7 million 3.1 million 0.1 million

Paved, not maintained rural roads 0.5 million

Unpaved rural roads 2.2 million 1.9 million

Paved, maintained rural roads 728,871 53,634

New rural roads 322,900 82,743

A rural road in Jharkhand, an eastern state of India

A rural road in Andhra Pradesh, a south Indian state

In a 2011 report, The Economist noted the rural road scheme and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee to be India's biggest single welfare project, costing over $8 billion a year.
Alone, it eats up over 3% of all public spending in India. The report claims Jairam Ramesh, the
minister in charge of the central government department administering the program, criticises
uneven, patchy implementation of the scheme. He describes wasteful construction of items such as
roads that quickly crumble away. The results, in many areas, fall short of the huge sums spent. The
funds aimed to employ local villagers through their panchayats is not changing the quality of rural
roads, rather ending up in wasteful spending and corrupt government officials’ pockets. The
gloomiest estimates suggest two-thirds of allocated scheme funds is being squandered. A review
published by the Ministry in September 2011 found that skilled technicians were unavailable at
almost every site. There were rules banning the use of machinery or contractors, labour is usually by
shovel, resulting in patchy construction of roads, drains, ponds, dams and other assets that are of
very poor quality. The government scheme has failed to improve India's awful rural infrastructure.
These rural roads get washed away each monsoon, only to be rebuilt, badly, the following year. [36]

Issues[edit]

Road workers crushing rocks, Kullu, 2004

A rural road joing two Tehsils in Vidarbha, Maharashtra

A road connecting towns in Chhattisgarh

The main roads in India are under huge pressure and in great need of modernisation in order to
handle the increased requirements of the Indian economy. In addition to maintenance, the expansion
of the network and widening of existing roads is becoming increasingly important. This would then
enable the roads to handle increased traffic, and also allow for a corresponding increase in the
average movement speed on India's roads.{ Visit : solutionabouttech}
In 2009, lane capacity was low and only about 16% of India's roads were four lanes or above. [10] A
2007 study found that the congestion on India's highways reduced average truck and bus speeds to
30–40 km/h (19–25 mph); road maintenance was under-funded, and some 40 percent of villages in
India lacked access to all-weather roads.[2] While the PMGSY rural road program mentioned above
has, by 2011, connected 90 percent of villages identified in 2005 as without access, [33] many remote
villages in India were still without access to a single lane, paved road as of May 2011.
The World Health Organization compilation of road network safety data for major economies found
India to have the highest number of road fatalities in the World, with 105,000 road-accident caused
deaths in 2006.[37] However, adjusted for India's larger population, the accident and fatalities rates are
similar to major economies. Over 2004–2007, India had a road fatality rate of 132 deaths per million
citizens, compared to 131 deaths per million citizens in the United States. Non-fatal accident rates
reported on Indian roads was 429 accidents per million citizens, compared to 412 accidents per
million citizens in China, and 1101 accidents per million citizens in the United States. The report
notes that not all accidents in India and China are reported and recorded.
The low road densities per 1000 people has created significant congestion and slow speeds on
existing roads inside cities. Because of the congestion, the fuel efficiency of the vehicles in India is
very low. This increases the overall fuel consumption per equivalent kilometer travelled, besides
resulting in heavy pollution since the engines run very inefficiently at such low speeds. [38] Pollutants
from poor road network and resultant poor fuel efficiencies include hydrocarbons, NOx, SOx,
methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide – all of which cause health problems, adverse
climate effects and related environmental damage.
Due to rising prices of petroleum, a non-renewable resource, some have urged the Indian
government to focus instead on improving public transport like the Indian Railways and rapid
transit systems.[39] Many cities have proposed, or are implementing metros and mass transit systems.
Efforts in India to address issues related to road network [edit]

Delhi Gurgaon Expressway in northern India, in India's effort to modernise its road network

A 4-lane expressway added in the state of Karnataka, India

India's recent efforts to build modern highways and improve its road network has made a significant
difference in trucking logistics. According to DHL, a global logistics company, the average time to
truck shipments from New Delhi to Bengaluru (Bangalore), a 2000+ kilometre journey, had dropped
in 2008, to about five days.[40] By 2010, the average time to complete a road trip from New Delhi to
Mumbai, a 1400+ kilometer journey, had dropped to about 35 hours. In contrast, a similar journey
takes about half the time in China, and one third in European Union countries. In a 2010
report, KPMG – one of the world's largest audit and advisory services company – noted marked
improvements in Indian road network and logistics efficiencies in recent years. [41] The report also
identified the competitive challenges faced by India. Some findings of this report include:

 The average road speed in India has increased to 30–40 kilometers per hour. The worldwide
average road speed, which includes China, ranges between 60–80 kilometers per hour.

 Four lane road network in India has increased to 7,000 kilometers.

 Average surface freight costs have dropped to US$0.07 per kilometer. Japan, in comparison,
has average surface freight costs of US$0.037 per kilometer.
The KPMG report also notes that India's road network logistics and transportation bottlenecks hinder
its GDP growth by one to two percent (US$16 billion – US$32 billion). In India's 2010 per capita
income basis, this is equivalent to a loss of about 10 million new jobs every year. Poor rural roads
and traffic congestion inside the cities remains a challenge in India. The planned addition of over
12,000 kilometers of expressways in the next 10 years may help address some of such issues. The
constraints and issues with Indian road network differ from one state to another. Some states, such
as Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, have remarkably better road network than others.
11 Most Amazing Facts About The
Indian Road Network
The Road network of India is second largest road network in The World with total
length of around 4,320,000 kilometers. Indian road network is consists of 1000 km
-Expressways, 79,243 km -National Highways, 1,31,899 km -State Highways and Other
major district and rural roads. These amazing network of roads also have Elevated
Expressways, Cloverleaf Interchange,river road bridge and flyover, which are longest
and largest in India as well as in Asia. Recently Mumbai got its much awaited
flyover opened known as the Santa Cruz – Chembur Link Road. Chembur Santa Cruz
or SCLR contains India’s first double-decker flyover connecting the Western Express
Highway (WEH) in Santa Cruz with the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) in Chembur.

Longest National Highway

The National Highways Network of India is covers 79,243 km of the country including
1000 km of limited-access highway or limited-access road. NH 7 is the longest national
highway in India with total distance of 4,572 km from Varanasi to Kanyakumari but as
per new scheme the longest national highway will run from Srinagar to Kaniyakumari
NH 44.

Best National Expressway

The Ahmedabad Vadodara Expressway is known as one of the best Expressway in
India and also referred as the National Expressway 1. The 95 km long Express highway
connects Ahmedabad and Vadodara and constructed under the Golden Quadrilateral
Project by NHAI in 2004. Mumbai-Pune-Expressway is the first Controlled-access
highway or expressway of India and the recently open Yamuna Expressway is one of
the most beautiful road of Indian road network.

Longest Elevated Freeway

Chennai Port Maduravoyal Elevated Expressway will be the longest Elevated
Expressway of the country with the total length of 19 km followed by the PVNR Elevated
Expressway of Hyderabad and hosur road elevated expressway of Bangalore.
Maduravoyal Elevated Expressway is under construction in city of Chennai with
Maduravoyal Grade Separator or Maduravoyal Junctionat the intersection of National
Highway 4.

Largest Cloverleaf Interchange

The Kathipara Junction of Chennai is the largest cloverleaf interchanges in India and
largest cloverleaf flyover in the whole of Asia. Kathipara cloverleaf grade separator is
located at the intersection of Grand Southern Trunk Road,Inner Ring Road,
Poonamallee road and Anna Salai.

Largest Urban Flyover

The Hebbal Flyover of Bangalore built by Gammon with the total spans length of 5.23
kilometers. The serpentine maze of flyovers connects the Outer Ring Road and Bellary
Road, it will receive rapid expansion and growth for smoother traffic flow. Hebbal flyover
is one of the Civil Engineering Wonder of India

Longest Road Tunnel

The Chenani Nashri Tunnel or Patnitop Tunnel is a under construction road tunnel at
Chenani in Udhampur district of Jammu & Kashmir. Chenani Nashri Tunnel will be
the India’s longest road tunnel with total length of 9.2 km long at an average elevation of
1,062 meters ( 3,487 feet).

Largest Over Bridge

The Kanpur Over Bridge is one of the largest over-bridges in the Asia, It’s situated in
National Highway 2 while entering the Kanpur city from Etawah. Kanpur over bridge is
23 km long and 12 lane over bridge, Another under construction bridge near Kanpur is
Jajmau Bypass, will be 3 km long and 8 lane road.

Longest River Road Bridge

The Mahatma Gandhi Setu river road bridge over the holy river Ganges in Bihar,
connecting the capital city of Patna in the south to Hajipur. Mahatma Gandhi Setu is 5.5
km long, 4 lane roadway with 48 pilers, which makes India’s longest river road
bridge and one of the longest bridges in the world.
Longest Road Cum Rail Bridge

The Godavari Bridge also known as Kovvur Rajahmundry bridge over river Godavari in
Rajahmundry is Asia’s second longest road-cum-rail bridge crossing a water body.The
2.7 kilometres long bridge has two lanes of road and single railway line.

Biggest Toll Plaza

The 32-lane toll plaza is located at the Delhi-Gurgaon border in the route of Delhi
Gurgaon Expressway. The 32 Lane Gurgaon Expressway toll plaza is the India’s largest
toll plaza and biggest toll plaza in whole Asia.

Longest Sea Bridge

The Bandra Worli Sea Link of Mumbai is India’s longest Sea Bridge followed by second
longest sea bridge, The Pamban bridge. Bandra Worli Sea Link connects Bandra with
Worli and is the part of proposed Western Freeway. The cable stayed bridge is the new
landmark of the city followed by a cloverleaf interchange at the Western Express
Highway.The Mumbai Trans Harbour Link is an under construction sea bridge in
Mumbai and will be the longest sea bridge of India with total length of 22 km.

Upcoming World’s Tallest Railway Bridge

The Chenab river bridge is upcoming highest rail bridge in India as well as in the world,
It is located between Bakkal and Kauri in the Kashmir Railway route at an height of 359
m (1,178 ft) above river bed.Chenab bridge is under construction largest rail structure
with the largest arch bridge in the world too.
India had a network of roads in the ancient
times.
The road development in India can be discussed
by taking different phases of the history at one
time.

Ancient Times:
The excavation of the Mohn-Jodaro and
Harappa civilization shows the traces of the
roads in the ancient Indian times, in a
period f 35th to 25th B.C.

The Aryan Period and Road

Construction:
There are various scriptures available,
which script about the road development in
India in the Aryan period. "Arthashastra"
written by Kautilya (Chanakya), the prime
minister of the Chandra Gupta Mourya,
discusses the rules laid down for the depth
of the road construction for different
purposes in the 4th century.
There were punishments for obstruction of
roads. The emperor Ashoka has improved
the quality of the roads in India for
the travelers, in his ruling period i.e. fifth
century A.D.

Best Books for GATE, SSC, PSU preparations:

Mughal period and Road construction:

The Mughal and Pathans improved the
quality of the roads in India. Sher Shah Suri
is still remembered for the construction of
the Grand Trunk Road(GT Road) from
Bangladesh-India to Kabul in Afghanistan.

19th Century and Road Construction in

India:
After the fall of the Mughal Empire in India
in 19th century the Britishers participated in
the road construction for the military and
administrative purposes.
The work was carried out by the British
Military Engineers. Railway was introduced
later but the existing roads were metaled
and bridges were provided. The governor
general of India i.e. Lord Dalhousie in the
mid of 19th century introduced the
PWD(Public works department), which still
runs the various public works in India.

Later after the introduction of the railways in

India the attention was shifted to the
railways construction and only the feeder
roads and railways got the prime
importance afterwards.

Jayakar committee:
The committee was formed by the both
chambers of the Indian Legislature in the
year 1927 to examine the roads in the India
and ways of their development. The number
of vehicles on the Indian roads increased
after the first world war, so it was felt
necessary to develop a good network of the
roads in India.

Indian Road development committee was

formed in the year 1927, with M.R.Jayakar as
its chairman. The committee submitted its report
in the year 1928, and made some important
recommendations:
The road development in India should be
considered a national interest, because it is out
of control of the local bodies.
1. An extra tax should be put on the petrol
consumers to develop a road development
fund, called the Central Road Fund.
2. A semi-official body should be formed to
pool technical ideas, knowledge from the
various parts of the country and to act as an
advisory body on various aspects of roads.
3. A research organisation should be
organised to carry out the research and
development work.
As a result of these recommendations a central
Road Fund was formed by the year 1929, a
semi-official body called Indian Roads
Congress was formed in 1934 and the Central
Roads Research Institute was started in 1950.
 Central Road Fund (1929):
Central Road Fund was formed in the year
1929, extra money 2.64 paisa per liter of
the petrol, was charged from all the ptrol
buyer in the country. This fund was kept
separate for the use in the road
development in India.
About 20% of the fund was kept to be used
for the expenses of the administrative
meetings and the research work of the
highways of the national importance in the
country. The rest of the 80% of the funds
were distributed among the provinces at
that time, according to their road users, for
the development of the roads by the state
governments.
 Indian Roads Congress (1934):
A semi-government organisation named,
Indian Roads Congress was formed in the
year December 1934, and was registered in
the year 1937 under the registration act.
The main function of the IRC was to act as
a forum for the regular pooling of the
technical knowledge and know how, from
the various parts of the country. IRC
performed the various plannings, and also it
has become the most important agency to
provide the standards and the
specifications for the road construction in
the country.
 Motor vehicle act(1939):
The increased numbers of vehicle on the
Indian roads demanded for the rules and
regulations. The motor vehicle act was
passed in 1939, which laid down the rules
for the road users and also for the identity
of the vehicles. It is still running in the
country in almost same way as it was at
that time.
 Central Road Research
Institute(1951):
A series of laboratories, known as the
Central Science and Industrial
Research Center situated at Delhi, contains
the research center for the research work of
the road construction in India, it is known as
the Central Road Research Institute
The main function of the CRRI is to do the
research work for the road construction and
to provide the consultation services for the
state government also.
 First 20-years road plan(Nagpur Road
Plan-1943 to 1963):
The first twenty years road network plan
was prepared in the meeting of the Chief
Engineers from the various parts of the
country at the Nagpur, in 1943, which is
also known as the Nagpur road plan.
It was the first ever major planning which
contributed a lot for the development of the
roads in the country. It classified the Indian
roads according to their location and
purpose, and also it laid down a target for a
density of road network of 16 km per 100
sq. Km in the country at the end of the 20
years road network in the year 1963.
After the starting of the 5 years plans in the
year 1951, the first two 5 years plans also
contributed to the target set by the first 20
years plan of the Nagpur so the density of
16 km per 100 sq. Km was achieved in the
year 1961, 2 years earlier to the target year.

A typical hill road (Ghaghas to Shimla-

Himachal Pradesh) - in 2013

 Second 20-years road plan(Bombay

Road Plan- 1961 to 1981):
As the earlier target was achieved before
the planned year, so a need to set a new
target arises and another 20 years road
plan was laid down at the meeting of the
various authorities from different states at
Bombay. The road density target was
doubled this time.