INDIAN ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLANS

MAJOR LAND MARKS

 Formation of PwD (by Lord Dalhousie): 1855
 Road Development Committee (Jayakar Committee): 1927
 Indian Roads Congress: 1934
 1ST Road Development Plan (Nagpur Plan): 1943
 2ND Road Development Plan (Bombay Plan): 1961
 3rd Road Development Plan (Lucknow Plan): 1981
 Vision 2020 and Rural Roads Vision 2025: 1995-1999

FORMATION OF PWD (BY LORD DALHOUSIE):1855

 THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT (PWD) was founded as a separate branch of the
Government of India under the initiative of Governor-General Lord Dalhousie in 1855
 East India Company had initiated road and irrigation construction from as early as the
late eighteenth century, a distinct department was subsequently established in an attempt
to relieve the military of sole responsibility over infrastructure as well as to centrally
supervise projects underway in separate provinces.
 The PWD had its immediate precedent in a civilian Department of Public Works founded
in 1849 in the newly acquired territories of Punjab.
 Prior to this date imperial and provincial public works came under the purview of the
Engineering Department of the army which managed infrastructure through three
Military Boards in the presidencies.

ROAD DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (JAYAKAR COMMITTEE)

Formation
In 1927 by the Government of India comprising of members of both houses f parliament
under the Chairman ship of M R Jayakar
Objective
 Desirability of developing the road system of India and the means by which such
development could be achieved
 The possibility, having regard to the distribution of functions between the central and
provincial governments, of coordinating the activities of different governing authorities
through a Central Road Board
Recommendation
 Emphatic regarding inadequacy of Roads and urged for further development of the
system
 For the better marketing of the agrarian products
 For the social and political progress of rural population
 As a complement to railway transportation
 Road development is a matter of national interest and beyond the financial capacity of
provincial governments
 Additional taxes need to be imposed as –
 Duty on motor spirit
 Taxation on vehicles
 License for vehicles plying for hire
 Need to form a centrally governing body – Indian Roads Congress (1934)

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 1

 INDIAN ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLANS

FIRST ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLAN (NAGPUR PLAN) – 1943

Overview:
With formation of IRC, planning for a comprehensive road development plan initiated and
targeted to be implemented in 1941 (matching with the census year) for a period of twenty years.
The plan came to effect in 1943 with 1961 as the target year for completion.
Classifies roads into two major groups of
 Urban
 Non-Urban
And further sub divides Non-Urban roads into five classes in decreasing order of importance
(increasing order of connectivity) as –
 National Highway
 Provincial Highway
 Major District Road
 Other District Road
 Village Road
Major plan focus on Non-Urban Highway construction by considering the economy to be
completely “agrarian” without any significant contribution of industrial need

Classification of Highways:
Non-Urban Roads
 National Highway: Connecting State Capitals and managed by Central Government
 Provincial Highway: Connecting District Headquarters and managed by provincial
government (and all subsequent types)
 Major District Roads: Connecting Subdivisional head quarters
 Other District Roads: Within District important places
 Village Roads: Door to Door Connectivity
Urban Roads
 Arterial Street: Major road of a town running North-South or East-Wet direction
connecting major places
 Sub Arterial Street: Connecting important places and providing network between Local
Streets and Arterial Street
 Local Street: Feeder Roads from Collector to Sub-Arterial / Arterial
 Collector Street: Door to Door Connectivity

Target Road Length of –

𝑨 𝑩
National & Provincial Highways and Major District Roads – 𝟖 + 𝟑𝟐 + 𝟏. 𝟔𝑵 + 𝟖𝑻 + 𝑫 − 𝑹
Other District Roads & Village Roads – 𝟎. 𝟑𝟐𝑽 + 𝟎. 𝟖𝑸 + 𝟏. 𝟔𝑷 + 𝟑. 𝟐𝑺 + 𝑫
where
A = Agricultural area in sq. km
B = Non-Agricultural Area in sq. km
T= Number of habitat with population more than 5000
N = Number of habitat with population between 2001 and 5000
V = Number of habitat with population less than 500
Q = Number of habitat with population between 501 and 1000
P = Number of habitat with population between 1001 and 2000
S = Number of habitat with population between 2001 and 5000

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 INDIAN ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLANS

D = Development allowance of 15%

R = Mileage of Railway length

SECOND ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLAN (BOMBAY PLAN) – 1961

Overview:
 Focuses on unfinished targets of 1st plan
 Considers contribution of non-agrarian economy also although major development s
considered as mostly connected with agriculture.
The country is divided into three major zones –
 Developed – comprising of agrarian rural areas, industrial & commercial centres, railway
junctions, ports, defence areas major cities etc.
 Semi Developed
 Under Developed / uncultivable
Major Targets –
 Good Communication of Rural Areas
 Web Network of Roads with Nations and State (provincial, renamed) Highways and MDR
forming the primary grid along with ODR and VR forming the secondary grid by reaching
to target houses
 Road Density of 52 miles per 100 sq. miles (later converted to 32 Km per 100sq Km)
 Every village to be within a specific radius of a road as in –
Developed Area 4miles (6.5Km) of metalled road 1.5miles (2.4Km) of any road
Semi-Developed Area 8miles (13Km) of metalled road 3.0miles (5.0Km) of any road
Under-Developed Area 12miles (20Km) of any road

Target Road Length (in Km) of –

𝑨 𝑩 𝑪
NH: + + + 𝟑𝟐𝑲 + 𝟖𝑴 + 𝑫
𝟔𝟒 𝟖𝟎 𝟗𝟔
𝑨 𝑩 𝑪
NH+SH: 𝟐𝟎 + 𝟐𝟒 + 𝟑𝟐 + 𝟒𝟖𝑲 + 𝟐𝟒𝑴 + 𝟏𝟏. 𝟐𝑵 + 𝟏. 𝟔𝑷 + 𝑫
𝑨 𝑩 𝑪
NH + SH+MDR: 𝟖 + 𝟏𝟔 + 𝟐𝟒 + 𝟒𝟖𝑲 + 𝟐𝟒𝑴 + 𝟏𝟏. 𝟐𝑵 + 𝟗. 𝟔𝑷 + 𝟔. 𝟒𝑸 + 𝟐. 𝟒𝑹 + 𝑫
NH+SH+MDR+ODR:
𝟑𝑨 𝟑𝑩 𝑪
+ + + 𝟒𝟖𝑲 + 𝟐𝟒𝑴 + 𝟏𝟏. 𝟐𝑵 + 𝟗. 𝟔𝑷 + 𝟏𝟐. 𝟖𝑸 + 𝟒𝑹 + 𝟎. 𝟖𝑺 + 𝟎. 𝟑𝟐𝑻 + 𝑫
𝟏𝟔 𝟑𝟐 𝟏𝟔
NH+SH+MDR+ODR+VR:
𝑨 𝑩 𝑪
+ + + 𝟒𝟖𝑲 + 𝟐𝟒𝑴 + 𝟏𝟏. 𝟐𝑵 + 𝟗. 𝟔𝑷 + 𝟏𝟐. 𝟖𝑸 + 𝟓. 𝟗𝑹 + 𝟏. 𝟔𝑺 + 𝟎. 𝟔𝟒𝑻 + 𝟎. 𝟐𝑽 + 𝑫
𝟒 𝟖 𝟏𝟐
Where,
A = Developed and agricultural areas, sqkm
B= Semi-developed area, sqkm
C = Underdeveloped area, sqkm
K = number of towns with population over 1,00,000
M = number of towns with population range 1,00,000 – 50,000
N = number of towns with population range 50,000- 20,000
P = number of towns with population range 20,000- 10,000
Q = number of towns with population range 10,000- 5,000
R = number of towns with population range 5,000- 2,000
S = number of towns with population range 2,000- 1,000

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 INDIAN ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLANS

T = number of towns with population range 1,000- 500

V = number of towns with population range below 500
D = Development allowance of 5 percent of road length calculated.

THIRD ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLAN (LUCKNOW PLAN) – 1981

Overview:
Focuses on unfinished targets of 2nd plan and without proposing any gross changes emphasizes
on planning the road network in such a way that–
All villages with population more than 500 gets road connectivity
Other district Roads to connect all habitat with population between 1001 to 1500
Major District Roads to connect all habitat with population more than 1500
National Highways to form an average square grid of 100Km size
Target Road Lengths (in Km)

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑅𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ = 4.74 × 𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑠

MAJOR ADD-ON’S DURING 3RD PLAN PERIOD

 Changes in Classification
o Introduction of Expressway: As a qualitatively better NH or Arterial Street to
allow High-speed uninterrupted traffic
o Renaming of Major District Road as District Highway
o Redefining Geographical Extent of NH / SH / DH
o Instead of the criteria of spanning across multiple area (NH over States, SH over
Districts and DH over subdivisions) and connecting Capitals / Headquarters,
criteria redefined to connecting locations of economic importance (National
for NH; State Level for SH and District Level for DH) may be or may not be
spanning over multiple such region
 Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY)
o The most ambitious and largest road project ever by a single agency
o Active Role Playing by National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA)
o Aimed at connecting all villages with population more than 500 by roads
o Subsequently enhancing the target to “All weather Roads” and then to “Black-
top Roads”
o Directly engaging Academic Institutes as sole technical experts of the project in
the form of National Technical Agencies (NTA) and State Technical Agencies (STA)
o All projects under direct execution and financial supervision of District
Magistrates with recommendation of STA’s and under NRRADA & NTA’s
 Vision 2020
o Instead of proposing 4th Plan, Resolved to continue with 3rd Plan model along with
PMGSY and proposing specific target for 4th 20-year period as Vision-2020
o At least 50% of the National Highways to be of minimum 4-lane width and rest
of 2-lane
o At least 10,000 Km of State Highways to be of minimum 4-lane width and rest
of 2-lane

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 INDIAN ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLANS

o At least 40% of the District Highways to be of minimum 2-lane width All

village connectivity
o Proper and Enhanced Focus on –
 Research & Development
 Alternate Financing
 Road Safety
 Environmental Impact
 Rural Roads Vision 2025 (along with National Vision 2020 Plan):
o All habitats to be connected by Roads
o All habitats with population more than 100 to be connected by All Weather
Roads
o Gradual Conversion of All roads to Black top (Bituminous surfacing) roads

FRESH EXHAUSTIVE ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLANS TO BE IMPLEMENTED ONLY AFTER

ACHIEVING ALL TARGETS AS ON DATE

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 5