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India Road Maps

India Road Map

India road maps make you familiar with the Indian road network. India has a total road network of 3,320,410 kilometres, which is the third biggest road network in the world.


For every square kilometre of land, there is 0.66 km of highways in the country.

The density of the highway network of India is somewhat more as compared to the United States (0.65) and substantially higher as compared to Brazil (0.20) and China (0.16).

According to the data furnished in 2002, just 47.3% of the Indian roadways network comprised paved roads.

In 2012, India had only 600 km expressways whereas, at the same time, China had 74,000 km. India had a national highway network of 70,000 kilometres, while China had about 130,000 kilometres of national highways.

Overview of India road Maps



Previously, India did not allot funds for constructing or upkeep of its roadways network. However, the scenario has evolved over the past 15 years. The Government of India, in collaboration with a number of private players, is taking groundbreaking endeavours for overhauling the road transportation system of the nation.

By 2013, India is mulling over to outlay about US$70 Billion to upgrade its main road network.

Till date, some of the important plans that have been put into operation include names like the Yamuna Expressway, National Highways Development Project, and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Till the month of October 2011, India had finished the construction and implemented more than 14,000 km of newly constructed 4-lane highways. These highways are utilised to join a large number of business hubs, production hubs, and cultural hubs.

As substantiated by the facts and figures furnished by Goldman Sachs, the country would have to make an outlay of US$ 1.7 trillion on infrastructure ventures throughout the coming ten years to enhance economic development. With an attempt to attain this, the Indian government is making an honest attempt to attract investment from other countries in road infrastructure ventures by providing economic bonuses like toll rights to contractors and developers.

Statistics related to the Indian Roadways Network



As a whole, roads in the country are mostly tarmac roads with bitumen as one of the major construction ingredients. Nevertheless, some of the National Highways feature concrete roads as well. In cities like Kanpur, concrete roads constructed by the British government are still operational. Earlier than the 1990s, concrete roads did not gain so much popularity due to insufficient availability of cement at that time. Nonetheless, with the increased availability of cement in India and the excellent features of concrete roads, they are once more garnering popularity. This type of roads has higher durability and needs less upkeep than the bitumen-based thoroughfares.

Indian Road Network
Type Length (km)
State Highways128,000
Expressways/National Highways66,754
Rural and other roads2,650,000
Important district roads470,000
Total (approximate figure) 3,314,754


Expressways in India



In 2009, access-regulated expressways in India comprised around 120 miles or 200 km of the National Highway System of the country. By 2011, these added to more than 600 km. These roads allow high speeding vehicles and can be categorised into four-lane and six-lane expressways. It has been anticipated that by 2014 around 3,530 km of expressways will be put into operation from the projects that are currently going on. The Indian government has outlined a motivating goal to construct a new 18,637 km expressway transportation system by 2022.

The expressways in India are access regulated and come with a separator in the middle and feature four or six traffic lanes together with a raised border on both sides. These expressways normally don't permit three-wheelers, two-wheelers, or tractor vehicles to travel on them. A speed limit of 75 mph or 120 km/hr has to be kept on these thoroughfares because of different joining traffic lanes and the absence of speed breakers just to guarantee uninterrupted journey. A majority of the present expressways in the country are toll roads.



List of expressways in India
Given below is a list of expressways in India:

Expressway Name

Name State
Mumbai-Pune ExpresswayMaharashtra
Ahmedabad Vadodara ExpresswayGujarat
Allahabad BypassUttar Pradesh
Jaipur-Kishangarh ExpresswayRajasthan
Chennai BypassTamil Nadu
Durgapur Expressway
Noida-Greater Noida ExpresswayDelhi/Uttar Pradesh
Delhi-Gurgaon ExpresswayDelhi/Haryana
Hyderabad Elevated ExpresswaysAndhra Pradesh
Delhi Noida Direct FlywayDelhi/Uttar Pradesh
Kona ExpresswayWest Bengal
Hosur Road Elevated ExpresswayKarnataka
Outer Ring Road (Hyderabad)Andhra Pradesh
Ambala Chandigarh ExpresswayHaryana
Raipur-Bhilai-Durg ExpresswayChhattisgarh


List of Expressways under construction
Given below is a list of expressways that are under construction in India:

Expressway Name

Name State
Eastern Freeway MumbaiMaharashtra
Western Freeway MumbaiMaharashtra
Kundli Manesar Palwal Expressway(KMP)Haryana
Mumbai Nashik Expressway Maharashtra
Pathankot Ajmer Expressway Punjab/Rajasthan
Delhi Eastern Peripheral ExpresswayUttar Pradesh/Haryana
Yamuna ExpresswayDelhi/Uttar Pradesh
Ganga ExpresswayUttar Pradesh
Upper Ganga Canal Expressway Uttar Pradesh
Bamroli Althan Expressway Gujarat
Hungund Hospet Expressway Karnataka
Chennai Port Maduravoyal Expressway Tamil Nadu
Suratkal-B.C Road ExpresswayKarnataka
Hyderabad ORR Andhra Pradesh
Raipur-Bilaspur Expressway Chhattisgarh


National Highways in India



The National Highways are the principal highways moving across the length and breadth of the nation, joining important harbours, big commercial and tourism hubs, state capitals, and so on. National Highways in the country are represented as NH, and then the highway number comes after it. These highways are again categorised on the basis of the girth of motorway of the road. Usually, for a single lane, the breadth of the lane is 3.75 metres. At the same time, for National Highways with many lanes, the breadth of every lane is 3.5 metres.

Till the month of September 2011, the country had finished and put into operation newly constructed highways as given below:
  • East-West and North-South Corridor highway (5,831 km) 4-lane
  • Golden Quadrilateral highway (5,829 km) 4-lane
  • Inter-capital highways (1,342 km) 4-lane
  • Port connectivity highways (330 km) 4-lane
  • Bypass and other national highways (945 km) 4-lane.
The abovementioned highways spanning 14,277 km join the majority of the important production hubs, business hubs and cultural centres of the country.

By the month of February 2008, out of the overall span of 7,000 km of finished highways, 14% of them featured four or higher number of lanes and approximately 59% featured double lanes or two lanes. At the same time, the remaining 27% of the National Highway transportation system featured one lane or a middle lane. Furthermore, by 2008, the country had offered various contracts in the form of a build-operate-transfer pattern and public-private partnership to grow the countrywide road transportation network.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is the principal authority which has the responsibility for the expansion, upkeep and handling of National Highways assigned to it. Till 2008, the National Highways Authority of India commenced the expansion operations under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) in stages. Other than the completion of NHDP, the agency also has the responsibility for executing other plans on National Highways, mostly road connectivity to important harbours in India.

National Highway Categorization
Lanes Span (km) Percentage
Double lane 39,079 59%
Intermediate lane/ Single Lane 18,350 23%
Four Lane/Six lane/Eight Lane 9,325 14%
Total 66,754 100%


The national highway network in India is supervised by the Ministry of State for Surface Transport. The public works departments of various states look after the state roads and state highways. The state and union governments have common responsibilities for constructing thoroughfares and sustaining the roadways in the country.

State Highways in India



The state highways are used to join with the National Highways, major towns, district headquarters, tourism hubs and small harbours and facilitate the movement of vehicles in important places of the state. These roads are essentially arterial roads, and they facilitate accessibility to major metropolitan areas and townships in the state in association with the State Highways of the bordering states and National Highways. The overall span of the state highways is around 1,37,712 km.

Other than the state highways, expressways, and national highways, there are some district roads and rural roads that form a significant part of the transportation network of the country.

Last Updated on: September 27, 2022