Nearly 50,000 km of national highways added in 9 years, shows govt data

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push for an infrastructure upgrade to boost the economy has led to an unprecedented 50,000 kilometres of National Highways - the country's arteries - being added in the last 9 years, according to official data.

India had a total of 97,830 km of National Highways in 2014-15 which has been expanded to 145,155 km by March 2023.

From building 12.1 km per day of roads in 2014-15, the nation is seeing 28.6 km of roads being constructed every day in 2021-22, according to the official data.

Roads and highways play a crucial role in a nation's economy. Road transport is the basis of not only economic development but also social development, defence sectors, and access to basic things for life. According to a report, about 85 per cent of passenger and 70 per cent of goods traffic is carried by roads every year, this gives us an idea of its importance.

India has about 63.73 lakh km of the road network, which is the second largest in the world.

National Highways play a very important role in the economic and social development of the country by enabling efficient movement of freight and passengers, connecting people and facilitating economic activities.

The Government of India has implemented multiple initiatives in the last 9 years to augment the capacity of the National Highway infrastructure in the country.

The pace of National Highways (NH) construction has increased consistently between 2014-15 and 2021-22 due to the systematic push through corridor-based National Highway development approach. In 2014-15, the pace of NH construction was about 12 km/ day, which increased to about 29 km/ day in 2021-22, the data showed.

As a part of Bharatmala Pariyojana, India's largest expressway, i.e., 1,386 km long Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, is being developed, and Delhi Dausa Lalsot section of the expressway has already been dedicated to the nation by PM Modi.