INDIAN ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLANS

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

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

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 2

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.

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 3

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
© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 4
ROAD DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (JAYAKAR
COMMITTEE)
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 5

INDIAN ROADS CONGRESS AND TWENTY-
YEARS ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLANS
© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 6
FIRST ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLAN
(NAGPUR PLAN) – 1943
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

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 7

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 Sub-
divisional 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
© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 8
NAGPUR PLAN – TARGET ROAD LENGTH
Mileage of National & Provincial Highways and Major District Roads –
𝐴 𝐵
+ + 𝑁 + 5𝑇 + 𝐷 − 𝑅 where
5 20
 A = Agricultural area in sq. mile
 B = Non-Agricultural Area in sq. mile
 T= Number of habitat with population more than 5000
 N = Number of habitat with population between 2001 and 5000
 D = Development allowance of 15% on the road length obtained by using “A”, “B”, “N”, & “T”
 R = Mileage of Railway length

Mileage of Other District Roads & Village Roads –

𝑉 𝑄
+ + 𝑅 + 2𝑆 + 𝐷 where
5 2

 V = Number of habitat with population less than 500

 S = Number of habitat with population between 501 and 1000
 S = Number of habitat with population between 1001 and 2000
 S = Number of habitat with population between 2001 and 5000
 D = Development allowance of 15%

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 9

SECOND ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLAN
(BOMBAY PLAN) – 1961
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

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 10

BOMBAY PLAN – TARGET ROAD LENGTH
Road Length in Miles –
𝐴 𝐵 𝐶
NH + + + 20𝐾 + 5𝑀 + 𝐷
40 50 60
𝐴 𝐵 𝐶
NH & SH + + + 30𝐾 + 15𝑀 + 7𝑁 + 𝑃 + 𝐷
12.5 15 20
𝐴 𝐵 𝐶
NH, SH & MDR + + + 30𝐾 + 15𝑀 + 7𝑁 + 6𝑃 + 4𝑄 + 1.5𝑅 +𝐷
5 10 15
3𝐴 3𝐵 𝐶
NH, SH, MDR & ODR 10
+
20
+
10
+ 30𝐾 + 15𝑀 + 7𝑁 + 6𝑃 + 8𝑄 + 2.5𝑅 + 0.5𝑆 + 0.2𝑇 + 𝐷
2𝐴 𝐵 2𝐶
NH, SH, MDR, ODR & VR 5
+ +
5 3
+ 30𝐾 + 15𝑀 + 7𝑁 + 6𝑃 + 8𝑄 + 3.75𝑅 + 𝑆 + 0.4𝑇 + 0.125𝑉 + 𝐷

where the Target is to achieve the road lengths from bottom most level

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 11

BOMBAY PLAN – TARGET ROAD LENGTH
For Bombay Plan the parameters are –
 A = Developed and Agricultural area in sq. miles
 B = Semi-Developed Area in sq. miles
 C = Under-Developed Area in sq. miles
 K= Number of habitat with population more than 100,000
 M = Number of habitat with population between 50,001 and 100,000
 N = Number of habitat with population between 20,001 and 50,000
 P = Number of habitat with population between 10,001 and 20,000
 Q = Number of habitat with population between 5,001 and 10,000
 R = Number of habitat with population between 2,001 and 5,000
 S = Number of habitat with population between 1,001 and 2,000
 T = Number of habitat with population between 501 and 1,000
 V = Number of habitat with population less than 500
 D = Development allowance of 5% on the road length

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 12

THIRD ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLAN
(LUCKNOW PLAN) – 1981
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 that 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)

𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑞.𝐾𝑚.
 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐻𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑤𝑎𝑦 = 50
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑞.𝐾𝑚.
 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝐻𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑤𝑎𝑦 = 𝑜𝑟 62.5 × 𝑁𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝑇𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑠 − 𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝐻
25
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑞.𝐾𝑚.
 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐻𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑤𝑎𝑦 = 𝑜𝑟 90 × 𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑇𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑠
12.5
 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑅𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ = 4.74 × 𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑠

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 13

MAJOR ADD-ON’S DURING 3 RD PLAN PERIOD
Changes in Classification:

 Introduction of Expressway
 As a qualitatively better NH or Arterial Street to allow High-speed uninterrupted traffic
 Renaming of Major District Road as District Highway
 Redefining Geographical Extent of NH / SH / DH
 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

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MAJOR ADD-ON’S DURING 3 RD PLAN PERIOD
Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY):

 The most ambitious and largest road project ever by a single agency
 Active Role Playing by National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA)
 Aimed at connecting all villages with population more than 500 by roads
 Subsequently enhancing the target to “All weather Roads” and then to “Black-top
Roads”
 Directly engaging Academic Institutes as sole technical experts of the project in the
form of National Technical Agencies (NTA) and State Technical Agencies (STA)
 All projects under direct execution and financial supervision of District Magistrates
with recommendation of STA’s and under NRRADA & NTA’s
© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 15
MAJOR ADD-ON’S DURING 3 RD PLAN PERIOD
Vision 2020:

 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
 At least 50% of the National Highways to be of minimum 4-lane width and rest of 2-lane
 At least 10,000 Km of State Highways to be of minimum 4-lane width and rest of 2-lane
 At least 40% of the District Highways to be of minimum 2-lane width
 All village connectivity
 Proper and Enhanced Focus on –
 Research & Development
 Alternate Financing
 Road Safety
 Environmental Impact

© DR PRITAM AITCH, CIVIL ENGINEERING, JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY 2020 16

 MAJOR ADD-ON’S DURING 3 RD PLAN PERIOD
Rural Roads Vision 2025
(along with National Vision 2020 Plan):

 All habitats to be connected by Roads

 All habitats with population more than 100 to be connected by All Weather
Roads
 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 17