Roads and bridges

Did you know? India has the second-largest road network in the world, after the United States (2024).

Roads come at different levels:

• Local roads near your home take children to school, farmers to markets and ambulances to hospitals.
• State highways connect towns and districts within a state; they are built and maintained by the state (its public works department).
• National highways and expressways are fast roads joining cities across states; they are built and maintained by the central government.

The same three levels of government you met in the last chapter!

Roads also connect with railway stations, airports and ports, so people and goods can move smoothly from one to the other.

In 2025 India's national highways were about 150,000 km long. The longest, NH44, runs 4,112 km from Srinagar to Kanyakumari. The Golden Quadrilateral is a highway network linking four big cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata — over more than 5,800 km, cutting travel time and boosting trade.

Highways can't be built everywhere — not through dense forests, wide riverbeds or steep mountains. There, bridges and tunnels make access possible.

The Dhola Sadiya Bridge (Bhupen Hazarika Setu) crosses the Lohit River between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. At 9.15 km it is India's second-longest bridge. Before it, people had to use ferries, which stopped in floods. Now people can cross all year round and the journey is four hours shorter. Farmers get fruit and vegetables to market before they spoil, and people reach hospitals faster, even in floods.

Another marvel is close to nature: Meghalaya's living root bridges, made by the Khāsi and Jaintia tribes from the roots of the Indian rubber tree (Ficus elastica). They guide the roots across streams using bamboo and palm trunks, and over many years the roots grow thicker and twist into natural bridges.

Some take decades or even centuries to grow and can last hundreds of years, standing 15–30 m high. They are not just paths but living, growing structures, cared for over generations — a sign of local people's knowledge of nature, and a link from one generation to the next. Most bridges weaken with age; these grow stronger.