Transportation in India: Road Transport

Geography covers a good number of questions making it an important topic to cover in SSC Exams.  Around 6 - 8 questions are asked from Geography which surely makes it important for you to study the topic well for upcoming SSC and Other Competitive Exams. Here are some short notes on "Transportation in India: Road Transport”  which you should not ignore.

Road Transport in India

India’s road network is one of the largest in the world. The total length of roads is more than 33 lakh km.

• For the purpose of maintenance and construction, roads are classified into National Highways, State Highways, District Highways, Village Roads, Border Roads, etc.
• National highways are maintained by the Central Government, State highways by the respective state government while District highways by the respective District Board. Border roads and International highways are also die responsibility of Central Government.
• The present length of the National Highways in India is approx. 45,000 km. They constitute only 2% of the total road length and carries nearly 40% of the road traffic.

Some of the Important National Highways are:      

• NH 1: New Delhi – Ambala – Jalandhar – Amritsar.
• NH 2: Delhi – Mathura – Agara – Kanpur – Allahabad – Varanasi – Kolkata.
• NH 3: Agra – Gwalior – Nasik – Mumbai
• NH 4: Thane and Chennai via Pune and Belgaun.
• NH 5: Kolkata – Chennai
• NH 6: Kolkata – Dhule
• NH 7: Varanasi – Kanyakumari
• NH 8: Delhi – Mumbai (via Jaipur, Baroda and Ahmedabad)
• NH 9: Mumbai – Vijaywada
• NH 10: Delhi – Fazilka
• NH 11: Agra – Bikaner
• NH 12: Jabalpur – Jaipur
• NH 24: Delhi – Lucknow
• NH 27: Allahabad – Varanasi
• NH 28: Barauni – Lucknow
• NH 29: Gorakhpur – Varanasi
• NH 56: Lucknow – Varanasi
• NH – 7 is the longest highway of India.

Note: 

Golden Quadrilateral comprises the National Highways connecting the four metro cities, viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The component has a total length of 5846km and is scheduled for substantial completion by December 2003.

The North South Corridor comprises the National highways connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari including Kochi Salem spur and the East West Corridor comprises the National Highways connecting Silchar to Porbander. The project has a total length of about 7300km.

State Roads

• Constructed and maintained by the State Public Works Department.
• Roads linking state capital with different district headquarters are state roads.
• These roads constitute 5.6% of total length of all roads. Other Roads These are classed as rural roads and interlink rural areas and village with towns. More than 93% of the total roads belong to this class.

Total Length of Roads (statewise in descending order): Maharashtra Orissa Uttar Pradesh Tamil Nadu Madhya Pradesh Andhra Pradesh Kerala Karnataka Rajasthan Gujarat Bihar

Length of National Highways (statewise in descending order): Madhya Pradesh Andhra Pradesh Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh Rajasthan Assam Bihar Tamil Nadu Karnataka West Bengal Orissa Gujarat

• Lowest in Jammu and Kashmir (10 km)
• Highest in Kerala (375 km) National Average (75 km)

Density of metalled roads

• National average - (42.4 km)
• Goa has the highest density - (153.8 km)
• Jammu and Kashmir has the lowest density (3.7 km)