Road Network in India

Roads undoubtedly serve as a convenient and affordable means of passenger traffic commutation. In India, roads have existed for more than 5000 years. It is available to all facets of society and spans across the entire length and breadth of the nation.

Significance of roads:

• Roads facilitate the movement of men and materials from one part of the country to another.
• They serve as a support system for other modes of transportation, including railroads, ships and airways, as well.
• A well-developed road network is essential for advancing the nation's business interests.
• Building and maintaining highways is comparatively simple and inexpensive.
• The road transportation system offers door-to-door service and makes it simple to connect farms, fields, factories, and marketplaces.
• Unlike roads, railroads cannot navigate sudden curves and steep inclines. As a result, roads can also be built in mountainous terrain, too.
• Road transportation is easier and faster than rail transportation for perishable goods like milk, produce and vegetables.

Around 2800 BC, the Indus Valley civilization's ancient cities of Harrapa and Mohenjo-Daro showed the first signs of road development in the Indian subcontinent. In ancient and medieval India, the rulers continued to build highways to link the cities. Several roads were constructed during the Sultanate and Mughal eras. The majority of the current main roads follow the Mughal routes. The empires needed these routes to be strengthened and consolidated

With over 6 million km of roadways, India has the second-largest road network in the entire world. The country comprises of a distinct aggregation of expressways, national highways, state highways, major district roads, other district roads and village roads. The National Highways which encompass close to 67,000 km form the primary road system of the nation. Even though these highways make up only 2% of all Indian roads, they transport 40% of the entire traffic.

The Department of Road Transport and Highways under the Ministry of Shipping is in charge of developing and maintaining roadways. State governments are in charge of all roadways, with the exception of national highways. The country's road system has been extensively modernized since the 1990s. 70% of Indian highways were paved as of March 31, 2020. The construction of highways in India increased and despite the pandemic and recession, India built 13,298 km of highways in FY21. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been given Rs. 199,107.71 crores by the Indian government as part of the Union Budget 2022–23 for the construction of roads and highways.

Under the government programme Bharatmala, significant projects are being carried out. Large-scale initiatives are also being carried out by private builders and high to build roads and highways.

Major Road Projects that had added a few more feathers in India’s shining cap:

• Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the country's former prime minister, launched the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) in 1998. The Golden Quadrilateral, a network of 5,846 kilometres of four- to six-lane highways linking Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, is the flagship project of the NHDP. India declared the four-lane GQ highway network complete in January 2012.
• The 7,142-kilometer, four- to six-lane North-South and East-West Corridor, which consists of national highways connecting the four extreme points of the nation, is another significant road project of the NHDP. The project intends to link Kanyakumari in the south, Silchar in the east and Srinagar in the north.

Problems and prospects:??????????

However, numerous issues with road transportation exist in India. The lack of a sufficient road network is fairly obvious when you consider the country's enormous size, physiography, limitless natural riches, and rapidly increasing passenger and freight traffic. Compared to countries with road lengths of 294.6 km in Japan and 131.2 km in Austria- for example, India's road length of 75.01 km per 100 sq km of area is appallingly low. The rapidly expanding motor vehicle population and rising commerce are two more crucial factors to be taken into account. Our roadways' capacity to carry more traffic has not kept up with the growth in the number of automobiles. Traffic congestion, delays and environmental pollution are the results of this. The likelihood that the number of motor vehicles would rise quickly in the near future is a further threat. As a result, action must be taken immediately to increase road capacity. According to current estimates, a four-lane motorway costs approximately Rs. 4.5 crore per kilometer.

The nation aims to construct 40 kilometers of highways each day. On July 21, 2021, Nitin Gadkari, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways announced that India had set a world record by building 26 kilometers of single-lane bitumen road in just 21 hours keeping in accordance with the IRC standards and specifications to ensure quality control. Additionally, throughout 2020–21, 36.5 km of new highways were built every day. However, to arrest the above-mentioned threats, road transportation should find more significance with the government which will pave our nation a step ahead among the developing nations of the globe.