There are three types of transportation, mainly road, water and air. In this, road transport is classified into four main categories:

• Expressways
• National Highways
• State HIghways
• Rural roads

Road transport in India accounts for almost 60% cargo and 87% passenger traffic. These critical national highways in India are built and managed by The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the nodal agency responsible for the national highways network. 

National Highway 44 (NH44), which stretches from Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) to Kanyakumari, is the longest of India’s 599 national roads, according to the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) (Tamil Nadu). The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), and the public works departments (PWD) of state governments build and operate the majority of the national highways.

National Highways Authority of India(NHAI)

• The National Highway Authority of India was established under the NHAI Act of 1988. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways controls the activity of NHAI.
• The National Highways Development is entrusted with various tasks such as developing, maintaining, and improving India’s roadways.
• The National Roads Development Project (NRDP) is an initiative to improve, rebuild, and widen essential highways. This project began in 1998 and is still ongoing.
• The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is an autonomous authority that maintains the National Highways at international standards, provides cost-effective services, and promotes people’s welfare.
• As of March 2022, the NHAI had finished the construction of approximately 1,40,995 kilometres of national roadways. National Highways make up only 2.7 per cent of India’s overall road network, but they transport about 40 percent of all traffic.

List of National Highways of India

• NH44 is the country’s longest highway. It stretches 3806 kilometres from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.
• The shortest national highway is NH766EE. It runs between Hettikeri and Belekeri port in Karnataka, stretching 4.72 km.
• The Leh-Manali Motorway, which connects Ladakh with Himachal Pradesh’s Manali, is the world’s second-highest motorable highway.
• The first National Highway linked the capital of India, Delhi, to Attari in Punjab, near the Indo-Pak border.
• The Golden Quadrilateral is a national highway that connects four main metro cities of India- Delhi(north), Kolkata(east), Chennai(south) and Mumbai(west).

Numbering of National Highways

1. The number of North-South roadways is even.
2. Odd numbers are used on all East-West routes.
3. All major Highways are allotted single-digit or double-digit numbers.
4. From the East to the West, the number of north-south routes grows. If a certain North-South highway is located in Central or Western India, it will have a greater number than the Eastern highway.
5. Secondary routes or branches of the main highway are three-digit numbered highways. For example, 144, 244, 344, etc., are all branches of the National Highway 44 mainline.
6. Suffixes such as ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ ‘D’ and so on are used in conjunction with the three-digit sub highway numbers to designate short spurs or segments of sub-highways. Examples are 966A and 527B.

Conclusion

National Highways are crucial for the progress of a country because they connect the northern, southern, eastern, and western parts of India. A robust and well-maintained National Highways network plays a significant role in developing a country’s infrastructure.