India 2018

504 India 2018
Roads
Road transport is a critical infrastructure for economic development of a country.
It influences the pace, structure and pattern of development. The Ministry of
Road Transport and Highways encompasses construction and maintenance of
national highways (NHs), administration of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and
Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989, National Highways Act,1956 and National
Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules,2008, formulation
of broad policies relating to road transport, environmental issues, automotive
norms etc. besides making arrangements for movements of vehicular traffic
with neighboring countries. The capacity of national highways in term of
handling traffic (passenger and goods) needs to be in tandem with the industrial
growth. India is having one of the largest road networks of over 54.72 lakh km.
It comprises national highways, expressways, state highways, major district
roads, other district roads and village roads with following length distribution:
National Highways / Expressway
State Highways
Other Roads
Total
1,03,933 km
1,61,487 km
52,07,044km
54,72,464 km
Historically investments in the transport sector have been made by the
Government. However, to encourage private sector participation, Ministry has
laid down comprehensive policy guidelines for private sector participation in
the development of National Highways.
Development and Maintenance of National Highways
The Government is implementing National Highways Development Project
(NHDP), the largest Highways Project ever undertaken in the country since
2000. The NHDP is mainly being implemented by National Highways Authority
of India (NHAI) and National Highways & Infrastructure Development
Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL). In addition, there is a Special Accelerated Road
Development Programme for the North East Region (SARDP-NE) that aims at
improving connectivity of district headquarters and remote places in the NE
region to state capitals , an Improvement of Road Connectivity in Left Wing
Extremism (LWE), and National Highways Interconnectivity Improvement
Projects (NHIIP) for rehabilitating and upgrading various stretches of National
Highways to 2 lane.
Setu Bharatam is another programme that aims to ensure road safety by
making all national highways free of railway level crossings, by 2019, by building
railway over bridges/ under passes.
Bharatmala is an upcoming umbrella programme that will subsume
unfinished parts of NHDP and also focus on the new initiatives like development