Highways, corridors and border roads

National Highways (NHs), built and maintained by the Central government, grew from 19,700 km in 1951 to 1,36,440 km in 2020. They are only about 2 per cent of road length, but carry about 40 per cent of road traffic.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI, 1995) built:

• the Golden Quadrilateral (5,846 km), linking Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata;
• the North-South corridor (Srinagar to Kanniyakumari);
• the East-West corridor (Silchar to Porbandar).

The Bharatmala project plans about 26,000 km of economic corridors and ring roads.

Rural roads make up about 80 per cent of road length; how dense they are depends on the terrain (plains have more, hills and deserts fewer). The Border Roads Organisation (BRO, 1960) builds strategic roads in difficult border areas, such as the Chandigarh-Manali-Leh road and the Atal Tunnel.