The document discusses the history of road development in India. It notes that roads were neglected during the decline of the Mughals and early British rule. Some improvements were made later under British administration. After independence, various committees and plans aimed to expand and classify the road network, including the Nagpur and Bombay/Chief Engineer's Plans. Major developments included the National Highways Authority of India and the National Highways Development Project to expand the Golden Quadrilateral and North-South/East-West corridors. Modernization efforts continue with new expressways and projects.

1. Roads in India during Early Modern History (British Period)
• The period covering decline of the
Mughals and the beginning of the
British rule was a period of neglect of
road system in India.
• Only William Bentinck and Lord
Dalhousie took some steps to improve
the roads.
• Lord Dalhousie organized to form the
provincial P.W.D. in place of Military
Board in 1885 for maintenance and
construction of road. Specifications
were framed for construction of road.
• These efforts had resulted in the
establishment of a good system of trunk
roads in the country by the end of the
nineteenth century.
• Development of road received a real
set-back after the introduction of
railways in the mid of nineteenth
century.

2. Roads in India during Early Modern History (British Period)
• The need of administration and
military was well adequately
served by railways. The
improvement of roads was
confined only to the feeder roads
leading to railway yards / depot.
• The primitive road transport
means were limited to horse carts
and bullock carts only. Whereas
the “iron horse” (railway engine)
was a quick means of transport.
• The time lag between the advent
of the railways and the
appearance of motorized vehicles
in India was nearly half a century.
This period can be considered to
be the darkest period in the
history of roads in India.

3. Post 1st World War Period
• After 1st World War (1914-1919)
there was a rapid growth in motor
transport.
• The pneumatic tyred vehicles caused
rapid deterioration of Indian roads
which were already in sad state of
neglect due to lack of Government
interest and inadequate finance at
the command of the local bodies.
• Need for better road was felt and
expressed in the council of States. In
November’1927, following a debate
on this subject in the Council, Govt.
of India appointed a committee
called Road Development Committee
consisting of members from both the
houses of the Central Legislature with
Mr. M. R. Jayakar as Chairman.

4. Post 1st World War Period :-
• The committee, known popularly as Jayakar Committee was required to :-
 Examine the desirability of developing the road system in India and the means by which such
development could be achieved.
 Examine the distribution of functions of central and provincial governments by formation of
Central Road Board or otherwise.
Amongst the findings of Jayakar Committee the important points were :
• The road development in India was beyond the financial capacity of the local Governments.
As it was a matter of national interest, it was proper to charge on Central Revenues.
• Since additional demands and requirements were created by growth of motor transport, the
committee suggested imposition of additional taxation on motor transport such as –
– A duty on motor spirit.
– Vehicle taxation.
– License fees for vehicles plying for hire.
• The additional funds from motor spirit duty were to go to the Central Revenue as Road
Development Fund.
• However, the committee did not consider it necessary to create a Central Road Board but
recommended the appointment of a road engineer attached to the development dealing
with roads.

5. The Indian Roads Congress.
• One of the recommendations of
Jayakar Committee was holding of
periodic Road Conference to discuss
inter alia questions relating to road
construction and development. The
first such conference was held in
1930. These conferences created
great interest and paved the way for
establishment of Indian Roads
Congress in 1934.
• The inaugural meeting of Indian Roads
Congress was held in New Delhi in
December, 1934. The meeting was
attended by 73 engineers from all
parts of India.

6. The Indian Roads Congress.
• IRC was registered as a society in 1937
under the Societies Registration Act of
1860.
• The principal objectives of IRC are –
• to promote and encourage the
science and practice of road building
and maintenance.
• to publish standard specifications
regarding road and bridge works.
• to hold periodic meetings to discuss
technical questions regarding roads and
bridges.
• to suggest improved methods of
administrations, planning, design,
construction, operation, use and
maintenance of roads.

7. Post Second World War Scenario
• The second world war saw a rapid growth in road traffic which caused serious deterioration in the
condition of roads. The situation compelled the govt. to convene a conference of Chief Engineers of
provinces at Nagpur in 1943. The result of conference is famous as “Nagpur Plan”.
• Some of the salient recommendations of Nagpur Plan are :-
– The roads should be divided into four classes :
– National Highways, which would traverse provinces or states and be of national importance for
strategic, administrative and other purposes.
– Provincial and State Highways, which would be the other main roads of a Province or State
– .District Roads, which would take traffic from the main roads to the interior of the districts. According
to their importance, some of these should be considered as Major District Roads (MDR) and the
remaining as Other District Roads (ODR).
– Village Roads, which would link the villages to the road system.
• There should be balance of development of all classes, one class should not progress at the expense of
other classes.
• The National and State Highways and Major District Roads should mostly be provided with a hard, durable
pavement crust.
• The Other District Roads and Village Roads should be provided with a properly engineered earth surface,
but improvements such as gravelling, soil stabilization, macadam or track ways could be considered where
necessary.
• Formula had been suggested to determine the length of different categories of roads and as per that
formula, a 20 years time-span (1943-1963) was set to achieve the targeted length.

8. Early Post Independence Development
• The Nagpur Plan provided a
rational basis for road
development in India to
upgrade the war-damaged
road system.
• After independence the
Central Government had
taken over the complete
financial responsibility for the
development and
maintenance of the National
Highways.
• The targets of Nagpur Plan
were mostly achieved by
1960 through the first and
second five year plan (1951-
56) and (1956-61).
Sl.
No.
Category Road
length(Km)
1(a) NH 26,715
(b) National
Trails
6,680
2 SH 86,825
3 MDR 80,145
4 ODR 1,33,580
5 VR 1,98,755

9. Early Post Independence Development
• The salient land marks in these
periods were :-
– Central Road Research Institute
(CRRI) was started in 1950 in
New Delhi. This institute is
considered as one of the
National Laboratories of the
Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research in India.
• Nation Highway Act was enabled in
1956, according to which
– The National Highways vest in Union.
– The Central Govt. may by
notification, declare any highway to
be NH.
• A major amendment of this act was
done in 1995 to enable privately
financed Toll Roads to be built and
operated.
–

10. Road Development Plan (1961-81) : Bombay Plan or
Chief Engineer’s Plan
• In 1959, a twenty years plan
(1961-81) was drafted in the
meeting of Chief Engineers which
is popularly known as Bombay
Plan or Chief Engineer’s plan. The
board objectives of the plan were
– Provision of good
communication in the rural areas
is essential to check increasing
urbanisation.
– Strategic needs in economic,
industrial and agricultural sides
are to be duly taken care off.
– Targets of every category of
roads were set based on some
rational formula, which was
10,57,000 km. in total involving
Rs.5,200 crores.
Category Road
length(Km)
Cost(Rs.Cr
ores)
NH 51,500 980
SH 1,12,650 1,580
MDR 2,41,400 1,360
ODR 2,89,680 650
VR 3,62,100 630
Total 10,57,330 5200

11. Road Development Plan (1981 – 2001) :
Lucknow Plan
Category of Roads Lucknow Plan
Targets
(1981 – 2001)
Achievements after
2000
NH 66,000 57,700
SH 1,45,000 1,24,300
MDR 3,00,000
29,94,000
ODR + VRs 21,89,000
TOTAL 27,00,000 31,76,000
* All data in kilometers.

12. Mid of Post Independence Period
• In the decades of 1980’s and 1990’s, some important steps
were taken in Road Sector.
• International lending agencies like the World Bank, the Asian
Development Bank, OECF (Now JBIC) stepped in to provide
loan assistance for road projects.
• Engagement of consultants for project preparation and
construction supervision.
• Packaging of large size road projects.
• State-of-art road construction technology and equipments.

13. National Highway Authority of India
– The most remarkable development in the road
sector after independence is formation of NHAI.
– NHAI was constituted by an act of Parliament in
1988.
– The authority was operational since February’
1995.
– NHAI has implemented National Highway
Development Project (NHDP) since 1998, dividing
in several phases.

14. National Highways Development Project at a
glance
NHDP Phase Particulars Length Indicative Cost ₹ ( in cr)
NHDP-I & II
Balance work of GQ and
EW-NS corridors
13,000 km (8,100 mi) 42,000
NHDP-III 4-laning 10,000 km (6,200 mi) 55,000
NHDP-IV 2-laning 20,000 km (12,000 mi) 25,000
NHDP-V
6-laning of selected
stretches
5,000 km (3,100 mi) 17,500
NHDP-VI
Development of
expressways
1,000 km (620 mi) 15,000
NHDP-VII
Ring Roads, Bypasses,
Grade Separators, Service
Roads etc.
700 km (430 mi) 15,000
Total 45,000 km (28,000 mi)
1,69,500 (Revised to
2,20,000)
Note: 1 crore= 10 million

15. Golden Quadrilateral
No. Segment
Length
Completed
(km)
Total
Length
(km)
Percent
Completed
(%)
As of (date)
1.
Delhi-
Kolkata
1,453 km
(903 mi)
1,453 km
(903 mi)
100
August 31,
2011
2.
Chennai-
Mumbai
1,290 km
(800 mi)
1,290 km
(800 mi)
100
August 31,
2011
3.
Kolkata-
Chennai
1,679 km
(1,043 mi)
1,684 km
(1,046 mi)
99.70 May 31, 2012
4.
Mumbai-
Delhi
1,419 km
(882 mi)
1,419 km
(882 mi)
100
August 31,
2011
Total
5,841 km
(3,629 mi)
5,846 km
(3,633 mi)
99.91 May 31, 2012

16. North–South and East–West Corridor
Segment
Total
Length
Length
Comple
ted
Under
Imple
mentat
ion
Length
to be
Award
ed
Percen
t
Compl
eted(%
)
As of
(date)
North–
South &
East–
West
Corridor
7,300 k
m
(4,500
mi)
6,025 k
m
(3,744
mi)
685 km
(426 mi
)
420 km
(260 mi
)
84
May
31,
2012

17. Some pictures of modern road project

18. Another beautiful bridge- Bandra-Worli Sea link

19. Top countries according to total length of road network
Source : Wikipedia, accessed on 03rd September,2022

20. Road length by categories
Sources: Basic road statistics of India, MoRTH (2016-17)