National Highways Development Programme
From Arthapedia
National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) was launched in 1998 with the objective of developing roads of international standards which facilitate smooth flow of traffic. It envisages creation of roads with enhanced safety features, better riding surface, grade separator and other salient features. National Highways constitute only 2% of the total road length in the country but carry 40% of the total traffic.
NHDP is being implemented by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), an organisation under the aegis of Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. The programme is being implemented in the following seven phases;
- Phase I: Phase I consists of Golden Quadrilateral network comprising a total length of 5,846 km which connects the four major cities of Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai & Kolkata and 981 km of North-South and East-West corridor .NS-EW corridor connects Srinagar in the north to Kanyakumari in the south and Silchar in the east to Porbandar in the west. Phase I also includes improving connectivity to ports.
- Phase II: Phase II covers 6,161 km of the NS-EW corridor (The total NS-EW corridor consists of 7,142 km) and 486 km of other NHs.
- Phase III: Four-laning of 12,109 km of high density national highways connecting state capitals and places of economic, commercial and tourist importance.
- Phase IV: Upgradation of 20,000 km of single-lane roads to two-lane standards with paved shoulders.
- Phase V: Six-laning of 6,500 km of four-laned highways.
- Phase VI: Construction of 1,000 km of expressways connecting major commercial and industrial townships.
- Phase VII: Construction of ring roads, by-passes, underpasses, flyovers, etc. comprising 700 km of road network.
References
- http://www.nhai.org/ (Annual Report 2011-12 , Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Working Group on Roads for the National Transport Development Policy Committee, Transport Research Wing, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.)
