Geography · Ch 15 — Transport and Communication — India
Road Transport
Road Transport
India has one of the second largest road networks in the world, with a total length of about 62.16 lakh km as of 2020-21. Roads carry roughly 85 per cent of passenger traffic and 70 per cent of freight traffic every year. They are especially suitable for shorter distance travel.
Before World War II, road transport in the modern sense was very limited in India. The first serious attempt to plan roads came in 1943 with the ‘Nagpur Plan’, but it could not be implemented due to lack of coordination among the princely states and British India. After Independence, a twenty-year road plan was introduced in 1961 to improve road conditions. Even so, roads continued to concentrate in and around urban centres, leaving rural and remote areas with the least connectivity.
Classification of Roads
For construction and maintenance, roads in India are classified into four categories:
- National Highways (NH)
- State Highways (SH)
- Major District Roads
- Rural Roads
The table below shows the length of each category as of 2020:
| Road Category | Length (km) |
|---|---|
| National Highways | 1,36,440 |
| State Highways | 1,76,818 |
| Other Roads | 59,02,539 |
| Total | 62,15,797 |
National Highways
National Highways are the main roads constructed and maintained by the Central Government. They are meant for inter-state transport and for the movement of defence personnel and material in strategic areas. They also connect state capitals, major cities, important ports, railway junctions, and so on.
The length of National Highways has increased from 19,700 km in 1951 to 1,36,440 km in 2020. Although National Highways constitute only about 2 per cent of the total road length, they carry 40 per cent of the road traffic.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was operationalised in 1995. It is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Surface Transport, entrusted with the development, maintenance, and operation of National Highways. It is also the apex body responsible for improving the quality of roads designated as National Highways.
The Grand Trunk (GT) Road was originally built by Sher Shah Suri as the Royal Road from the Indus Valley to the Sonar Valley in Bengal. During the British period it was renamed the Grand Trunk Road, connecting Calcutta and Peshawar. Today it extends from Amritsar to Kolkata.
National Highways Development Projects
NHAI has taken up several major projects under different phases:
Golden Quadrilateral: This project involves the construction of a 5,846 km long, 4/6 lane, high-density traffic corridor connecting India’s four big metro cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. Its aim is to considerably minimise the time, distance, and cost of movement among these mega cities.
North-South and East-West Corridors: The North-South corridor aims to connect Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir with Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu (including the Cochin-Salem spur), covering 4,076 km. The East-West corridor is planned to connect Silchar in Assam with the port town of Porbandar in Gujarat, with a length of 3,640 km.
Bharatmala Pariyojana: This programme envisages the development of about 26,000 km of Economic Corridors. Along with the Golden Quadrilateral and the North-South and East-West Corridors, these are expected to carry the majority of freight traffic on roads. The programme also focuses on developing ring roads, bypasses, and elevated corridors to decongest traffic passing through cities and enhance logistic efficiency.
State Highways
State Highways are constructed and maintained by state governments. They join state capitals with district headquarters and other important towns. These roads are connected to the National Highways.
District Roads
District Roads serve as the connecting link between district headquarters and other important nodes within the district.
Rural Roads
Rural roads are vital for providing links in rural areas. About 80 per cent of the total road length in India is categorised as rural roads. There is significant regional variation in the density of rural roads because they are influenced by the nature of the terrain. Density is very low in hilly, plateau, and forested areas. The quality of rural roads also tends to deteriorate away from urban centres.
The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is a major government scheme focused on constructing all-weather roads in rural areas to improve connectivity.
Other Roads
Other roads include Border Roads and International Highways. …
Figure 7.1 is a composite of two photographs placed side by side, both illustrating the state of road transport in India — but from starkly contrasting settings.
The left photograph is titled "RAINDROPS FALLING ON MY HEAD..." and shows a line of pack animals and nomads walking along a wet road during heavy rain. The sub-caption explains that this scene was captured in Srinagar during an early morning downpour. It adds that traffic on the 300-km Srinagar–Jammu National Highway and the 434-km Srinagar–Leh National Highway was suspended because the upper reaches of Jammu & Kashmir had heavy snowfall while rain lashed the plains. This image drives home a key point from the textbook: roads in India, especially in mountainous and remote regions, are highly vulnerable to weather. Even national highways — the country's most important roads — can be shut down by snowfall and rain, forcing people to rely on traditional pack animals for movement. It shows that despite modern road networks, rural and high-altitude areas still face severe connectivity challenges.
The right photograph shows a multi-lane urban road in Delhi, packed with cars and buses, with roadside trees lining the street. The sub-caption simply reads "A view of traffic flow in Delhi." This image represents the opposite extreme: a dense, congested urban road network carrying enormous volumes of passenger and freight traffic. It visually reinforces the textbook statement that roads carry about 85% of passenger and 70% of freight traffic annually, and that road transport is concentrated in and around urban centres. The contrast between the two photos is deliberate — one shows a road barely usable due to weather, the other shows a road overwhelmed by vehicles. Together, they illustrate the uneven development of India's road network: modern, high-density corridors in cities versus fragile, weather-dependent roads in remote areas. …
| Serial No. | Road Category | Length in Km |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | National Highways | 136440 |
| 2. | State Highways | 176818 |