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INDIAN GEOGRAPHY MAPPING

Important National Highways in India – UPSC

by LotusArise October 9, 2021 3 Comments

National Highways
According to the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH), there are 599
National Highways in India. Over a period of time, the numbering of National Highways in
India has been renewed. The Ministry has released details of National Highways in the
country on its official website.
The National highways are a network of trunk roads owned by the Ministry of Road
Transport and Highways. It is constructed and managed by the National Highway Authority
of India (NHAI), the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation
Limited (NHIDCL), and the public works departments (PWD) of state governments.
India has 151,019 km (93,839 mi) of National Highways as of March 2021. National
Highways constituted 2.7% of India’s total road network, but carried about 40% of road
traffic, as of 2013.
The longest National Highway is NH44, which runs between Srinagar in Jammu and
Kashmir and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, covering a distance of 3,806 km (2,365 mi).
The shortest National Highway is NH766EE, which spans 4.27 km (2.65 mi),
from Hettikeri to Belekeri port in Karnataka.
The Leh–Manali Highway connecting Leh in Ladakh to Manali in Himachal Pradesh is
the world’s second highest-altitude motorable highway.
The first National Highway in India was the old NH-1. It linked the National capital Delhi
to Attari in Punjab near Indo-Pak Border. Now as per the new numbering system, NH 1
runs between Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
On 28 April 2010, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways officially published a new
numbering system for the national highway network.
How Indian Highways are numbered?
1. All North-South highways will carry EVEN number
2. All East-West highways will have ODD numbers
3. All major Highways will be a single-digit or double-digit in a number
 4. North-South highways will increase their numbers from East to West. For example, a
particular North-South highway in Central India or Western India will have a higher
number than the one in East India.
5. Three digits numbered highways are secondary routes or branches of the main
highway. For example, 144, 244, 344, etc will be the branches of the main National
Highway 44.
6. Suffixes A, B, C, D, etc are added to the three-digit sub highways to indicate very small
spin-offs or stretches of sub-highways. For example, 966A, 527B, etc.
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was set up under NHAI Act, 1988. It is under
the administrative control of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
It has been entrusted with the National Highways Development Project, along with
other minor projects for development, maintenance and management.
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.
NHAI (an autonomous authority) maintains the National Highways network to global
standards and cost effective manner and promotes economic well being and quality of
life of the people.
It has completed construction of 3,979 km of national highways in the financial Year
2019-20.
NHAI has mandated development of about 27,500 km of national highways
under Bharatmala Pariyojna Phase-I.
Bharatmala Pariyojana is an umbrella program for the highways sector that focuses
on optimizing efficiency of freight and passenger movement across the country by
bridging critical infrastructure gaps through effective interventions.
The effective interventions include development of Economic Corridors, Inter
Corridors and Feeder Routes, National Corridor Efficiency Improvement, Border and
International connectivity roads, Coastal and Port connectivity roads and Green-field
expressways.

List of Important National Highways in India

Old National New National Highway States/UTs Through which it Passes
Highway Number Number
NH 1 A and NH 1 D NH 1 Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh
NH 1 B NH 244 Jammu & Kashmir
NH 2 NH 19 (Golden Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttar
Quadrilateral) Pradesh, West Bengal
NH 2A NH 519 Uttar Pradesh
NH 2B NH 114 West Bengal
NH 3 NH 60 Maharashtra
NH 50
NH 223 NH 4 Andaman & Nicobar Islands
NH 4 A NH 748 Goa, Karnataka
NH 4 B NH 348 Maharashtra
NH 5
NH 6 NH 16 (Golden Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu,
NH 60 Quadrilateral) West Bengal
NH 217
NH 7 NH 135 Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh
NH 7 A NH 138 Tamil Nadu
NH 8 NH 48 (Golden Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka,
Quadrilateral) Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu
NH 8 A NH 41 Gujarat
NH 8 C NH 147 Gujarat
NH 8 D NH 151 Gujarat
NH 17 NH 66 (Parallel to the Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala,
NH 47 Western Ghats) and Tamil Nadu
NH 9 NH 65 Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Karnataka, Telangana
NH 11 NH 21 Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh
NH 11 A NH 148 Rajasthan
NH 12 NH 45 Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh
NH 18 NH 40 Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu
NH 4
NH 21 Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh,
NH 22 NH 5 Punjab
NH 95
NH 23 NH 320 Jharkhand
NH 24 NH 530 Uttar Pradesh
NH 30 NH 319 Bihar
NH 35 NH 112 West Bengal
NH 39 NH 129 Assam, Nagaland
NH 47 NH 544 Kerala, Tamil Nadu
NH 47 A NH 966 B Kerala
NH 47 C NH 966 A Kerala
NH 55 NH 110 West Bengal
NH 56 NH 731 Uttar Pradesh
NH 79 NH 156 Rajasthan
NH 152 NH 127 A Assam
NH 38 & NH 153 NH 315 Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
NH-1
National Highway 1 (NH 1) in India runs between the union territories of Jammu &
Kashmir and Ladakh.
It comprises parts of old NH1A and NH1D.
The number 1 indicates, under the new numbering system, that it is the northernmost
East-West highway in India.
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