National Highways in India: India’s road infrastructure has taken a new meaning for the past few years. From construction of green highways to road over bridges, connectivity has become far more easy and faster. According to the official data, the country had a total of 97,830 km of National Highways in 2014-15. This has now been expanded to 45,155 km by March 2023, reported PTI.
The report further claims that the infrastructure upgrade in the last nine years, has led to an astounding 50,000 kilometres of National Highways.
The importance of National Highways in India
National Highways play a pivotal role in the country’s social and economic development. They not only improve connectivity but enable efficient movement of freight and passengers. Not many know this but as per a report, about 85 per cent of passengers and 70 per cent of goods traffic are carried by roads every year! Isn’t that mind-blowing! The Indian government has implemented multiple initiatives in the last 9 years to enhance the infrastructure of National Highways in the country.
The PTI report further says that the pace of National Highways construction has gradually increased between 2014-15 and 2021-22. This is because of the systematic push through corridor-based National Highway development approach. The pace of construction of National Highways was about 12 km/day in 2014-15. The data showed that this increased to about 29 km/ day in 2021-22.
In the long list of Expressways as part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana, 1,386 km long Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, is also being constructed. PM Narendra Modi has already dedicated the Delhi – Dausa – Lalsot section of the expressway to the nation.
(With Agency Inputs)