Renumbered National Highways map of India (Schematic)

The National Highways Authority of India or NHAI (

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

: भारतीय राष्ट्रीय राजमार्ग प्राधिकरण) is an autonomous agency of the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

, set up in 1995 (Act 1988) and is responsible for management of a network of over 50,000 km of

National Highways National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards used by all f ...

out of 1,32,499 km in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. It is a nodal agency of the

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is a ministry of the Government of India, that is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules, regulations and laws relating to road transport, transport research and in als ...

. NHAI has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman o ...

for satellite mapping of highways. Alka Upadhyaya is currently the chairperson of NHAI since December 2021. She is an IAS officer of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the second ...

cadre and 1990 batch. It is the first law making institution which made as digital.

History

The NHAI was created through the promulgation of the ''National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988''. Section 16(1) of the Act states that the function of NHAI is to develop, maintain and manage the national highways and any other highways vested in, or entrusted to, it by the Government of India. On 10 February 1995, NHAI came into operations and was formally made an

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...

body. It is responsible for the development, maintenance and management of National Highways, totaling over in length. The NHAI is also responsible of the toll collection on several highways.

Yogendra Narain Yogendra Narain (born 26 June 1942) is a 1965 batch retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre. He is a former Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha. He also served as the Defence Secretary of India, Chief Secre ...

was the first Chairman of NHAI in 1988. He is a retired IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre. In June 2022, the NHAI created a Guinness World record by building 75 km of highway between Amravati and Akola in Maharashtra in a span of just 5 days.

Projects

The NHAI has the mandate to implement the

National Highways Development Project The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) is a project to upgrade, rehabilitate and widen major highways in India to a higher standard. The project was started in 1998 under the leadership of Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Natio ...

(NHDP). The NHDP is under implementation in Phases. * Phase I: Approved in December 2000, at an estimated cost of ₹300 billion, it included the

Golden Quadrilateral The Golden Quadrilateral ( hi, स्वर्णिम चतुर्भुज, Svarnim Chaturbhuj; abbreviated GQ) is a national highway network connecting several major industrial, agricultural and cultural centres of India. It forms a ...

(GQ), portions of the NS-EW Corridors, and connectivity of major ports to National Highways. * Phase II: Approved in December 2003, at an estimated cost of ₹343 billion, it included the completion of the NS-EW corridors and another of highways. * Phase IIIA: This phase was approved in March 2005, at an estimated cost of ₹222 billion, it includes an upgrade to 4-lanes of of National Highways. * Phase IIIB: This was approved in April 2006, at an estimated cost of ₹543 billion, it includes an upgrade to 4-lanes of of National Highways. * Phase V: Approved in October 2006, it includes upgrades to 6-lanes for , of which is on the GQ. This phase is entirely on a DBFO basis. * Phase VI: This phase, approved in November 2006, will develop of expressways at an estimated cost of ₹ 167 billion. * Phase VII: This phase, approved in December 2007 will develop ring-roads, bypasses and flyovers to avoid traffic bottlenecks on selected stretches at a cost of ₹167 billion. NHAI helps in implementing Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North Eastern Region (SARDP-NE); a project to upgrade National Highways connecting state capitals to 2 lanes or 4 lanes in the north-eastern region.

Golden Quadrilateral

The

is a highway network connecting many of the major industrial, agricultural and cultural centres of India. A

quadrilateral In geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four edges (sides) and four corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''latus'', meaning "side". It is also called a tetragon, ...

of sorts is formed by connecting

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

, and hence its name. The largest

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

project in India and the fifth longest in the world was launched in 2001 by

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

and was completed in 2012. It is part of the first phase of the

(NHDP) and consisted of building four/six lane express highways at a cost of .

North–South and East–West Corridor

The North–South and East–West Corridor is part of the second phase of the

(NHDP) and consists of building of four/six lane

expressways Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. *Limited-access road A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limi ...

connecting

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its ...

in the north and

Kanyakumari Kanniyakumari (; , referring to Devi Kanya Kumari), also known as Cape Comorin, is a city in Kanniyakumari district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent and the southernmost city in mainland Ind ...

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of ...

in the south,

Porbandar Porbandar is a city in the Indian state of Gujarat, perhaps best known for being the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and Sudama. It is the administrative center of the Porbandar District and it was the former capital of the Porbandar princel ...

in the west and Silchar in the east, at a cost of US$12.317 billion (at 1999 prices).

National-Green-Highway-Mission

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Government of India has promulgated Green Highways (Plantations, Transplantations, Beautification, and Maintenance) Policy – 2015 on 29 September 2015 to develop green corridors along National Highways for sustainable environment and inclusive growth. The policy envisions "development of eco-friendly National Highways with the participation of the communities, farmers, NGOs, private sector, institutions, government agencies and the Forest Departments for economic growth and development in a sustainable manner." Under the aegis of the Policy, development of green corridors is proposed along developed and upcoming National Highways in the width available in existing Right of Way (ROW) in the form of median and avenue plantations. Roadside plantations have immense potential to enhance the green cover of the nation and generate employment opportunities for the rural community. Green Highways Division - under National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been entrusted with the task of planning, implementation and monitoring roadside plantations along one lakh km network of National Highways which would, in turn, generate one lakh direct employment opportunity in plantations sector in next ten years. For effective project planning, implementation and monitoring GHD has developed Guidelines and Vision Document.

Criticism

A 2012 report prepared by the World Bank’s Institutional Integrity Unit alleged that fraudulent and corrupt practices were being followed by Indian contractors working on national highway projects funded by it, and sought a thorough investigation into the matter. The report also alleged that contractors paid bribes and gifts, including gold coins, to "influence the actions" of officials and consultants of the National Highways Authority of India. Local bodies and major road owners - including PWD and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) - were criticized for depending on old technologies and outdated specifications for building and relaying roads.

New numbering system

In March 2010, Government of India issued a new list of numbered routes with rationalized and systematic numbering. The east–west oriented highways are numbered odd starting from North and increasing towards South e.g., NH 1, NH 3,NH 27 etc. The even numbered routes are, similarly, drawn vertically going north to south, with numbers increasing from eastern to western parts of India e.g., NH 2, NH 6, NH 44 etc.

Initiatives

National Green Highways Program

The

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ...

and NHAI launched the green highways program in 2016.

Harit Path application

The National Highways authority of India launched "Harit Path", a mobile application to monitor plantations along

. It will also monitor species detail, target achievements and maintenance activities.

References

External links

National Highways Authority of India
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Highways Authority Of India Roads in India Road authorities Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

Authority In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''T ...

Government agencies established in 1995 1995 establishments in Delhi Organisations based in Delhi