Highway development in India

Topic -2

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Contents
 Roads in Ancient India (3500 BC)
 Roads in Mughal period (15th Century)
 British Period (17th & 18th Century)
 Roads in 19th Century (1950 onwards)
 Jayakar committee and the recommendations
 Nagpur road conference / 1st 20 year Road Development Plan
 2nd 20 year road development plan
 National Transport Policy Committee (NTPC)
 3rd 20 year road development plan
 National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)

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Types of Ancient Indian Roads
• Indus Valley Civilization (Harrapa and Mohenjedaro):
 Roads with brick drains on both sides.
• Mauryan rule in the 4th century constructed
 Rajpath (high roads)
 Banikpaths (merchant roads).

• Ashoka Regime:
 Road networks with horticulture and rest houses at 4.8 – 6.4km along the roads.

• Mughul Period
Trunk roads between Northwest to Eastern part and also linking coastal and
central part of India
• British Period
 Trunk roads, bridges, PWD was formed, construction of Grand Trunk Road
Roads in Ancient India
 Excavations of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa

 Mauryan’s laid down the rules

 Emperor Ahoka - roads with horticulture

Roads in Mughal period
 During this period, roads of India were greatly improved.

 Some of the highways either built or maintained by

Mughals received great appreciation from the foreign
visitors who visited India during that periods.

 Roads were built running from N-W to the Eastern areas

through Gangetic Plains, linking also the coastal and
central parts.

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Roads in 19th Century
 At the beginning of the British rule, the conditions of
roads deteriorated.

 The economic and political shifts caused damage to a

great extent in maintenance of the road transportation.

 The fall of Mughal empire led therefore to scant attention

to the communication

 Prior to the introduction of railways, a number of trunk

roads were metalled and bridges were provided.

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Roads in 19th Century
 This was mainly done on the remains of old roads which
existed, under the supervision of the British Military
Engineers.

 Infact these roads connected important military and

business centres.

 Military maintenance was not quite adequate and in 1865

Lord Dalhousie, formed the PWD in more or less the
same from that exists today.

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Roads in 19th Century
 The construction of the Grand Trunk Road was
undertaken by this new department.

 Immediately with the development of railways, attention

of the Govt. was shifted from road development except
for providing feeder roads and the railways was gaining
the privileges.

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Jayakar committee and the
Recommendations, 1927
 In 1927, a committee was appointed to report on question of road
development in India. The most important recommendations made
by the committee are:
i. Road development should be made a national interest since the

provincial and local Govt. do not have financial and technical capacity

for road development.

ii. Levy extra tax on petrol from road users to create the road
development fund.
iii. To establish a semi-official ,technical institution to pool technical
knowledge, sharing of ideas and to act as an advisory body.

iv. To create a national level institution to carry research , development

works and consultation.

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Central road fund (CRF), 1929
 The consumer of petrol were charged an extrta leavy of
2.64 paise per litre

 20 % - Central Reserve – for meeting expenses on the

administration of the road fund, road experiments and
research on road and bridge projects of special interest.

 80% - to be allotted by the central government to the

various states based on actual petrol consumption or
revenue collected

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 Central Road Fund , 1929

CRF Act , 2000

Distribution of 100% cess on petrol as follows:

 57.5% for NH
 30% for SH
MORTH
 12.5% for safety works on rail-Road crossing.

50% cess on diesel for Rural Road development

Indian Road Congress (IRC), 1934
 To provide national forum for regular pooling of
experience and ideas on matters related to construction
and maintenance of highways.

 To recommend standard specifications.

 To provide a platform for expression of professional

opinion on matters relating to roads and road transport.

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Motor Vehicle Act, 1939
 It was brought into effect by Govt. of India to regulate
the road traffic in the form of
 Traffic laws

 Ordinaces &

 Regulations

 The three phases primarily covered are control of the

driver, vehicle ownership and vehicle operation on roads
and in traffic stream

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Nagpur Road Conference, 1943
 A conference of the Chief Engineers of all states and
provinces was convened in 1943 by Govt. of India at Nagpur,
an initiative of the IRC to finalise the 1st road development plan
for the country as a whole.
 In this 20 year road development plan (1943-63), popularly
known as the Nagpur Road Plan, all roads were classified into
5 categories and a 20 year development programme for the
period 1943-63 was finalised.
 At the end of this plan the target road length aimed at was 16
km per 100 square km area of the country.

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Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), 1950
 A constituent of Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR)

 The institute is mainly engaged in applied research and

offers technical advice to the state governments and
industries on various problems concerning roads

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National Highway Act, 1956
 Main features:
 The responsibility of development and maintenance of the
National highways (NH) to be provisionally taken by the central
government.

 The central Govt. to be empowered to declare any other highway

as NH or to omit any of the existing national highways from the list.

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2nd 20 year Road Development Plan (1961-81)
 Also known as Bombay road plan

 Target road density doubled from 1st : 32km per 100

sq.km area.

 Construction of 1600km of Expressways was also

included in this plan.

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Highway Research Board (HRB), 1973
Objectives IRC Highway Research Board are:
 To ascertain the nature and extent of research required

 To correlate research information from various organizations in

India and abroad with a view to exchange publications and
information on roads

 To co-ordinate and conduct correlation services

 To collect and disseminate results on research

 To channelise consultative services

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National Transport Policy Committee, 1978
 Govt. of India appointed NTPC in the year 1978
 To prepare a comprehensive national transport policy for the country for the
next decade or so.

 The NTPC report was made available in the year 1980 and many of the
major recommendations of this report have been accepted by the Govt.
of India.
 Some of the recommendations & suggestions:
 Inclusion of transport in the priority sector
 Requirement of roads in rural, hilly and tribal areas in the next road dev. Plans
 Strengthening of NH system
 Increase in funds for the maintenance of roads & to connect all the villages with all
weather low-cost roads within next 20 years

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3rd 20 year Road Development Plan
(1981-2001)
 Also known as ‘Lucknow road plan’

 Some of the important aspects

 Improvement of transportation facilities in villages, towns and
small cities,

 conservation of energy,

 preservation of environmental quality &

 improvement in road safety

 Target road density: 46km (1981) to 82 km (2001) per

100 sq.km area.
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National Highway Authority of India (NHAI),
1995
 Responsible to develop, maintain and operate the NH

 Under the control of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

 National Highway Development Programme (NHDP):

 Projects under NHDP:
 Golden Quadrilateral

 N-S & E-W Corridor

 Port connectivity

 National Rural Development Agency (NRRDA):

 Program under this agency: Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)
 Aim is to connect villages with a population over 1000 persons through good
all weather roads by 2003 (already achieved) and to connect villages with 500
population by 2007

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Golden Quadrilateral

22 Length :- 5846 km Connecting Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and

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N-S & E-W Corridor

Length :-7 ,300 km

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Kashmir to Kanyakumari -4000 km (with a spur to Cochin) and Silchar to Porbandar- 3300
 •Jayakar Committee
1927

•Central Road Fund

1929

•Indian Roads Congress (IRC)

1934

•Motor Vehicle Act

1939

•Nagpur Road Conference

1943

•Central Road Research Institute (CRRI)

1950

•National Highway Act

1956

•Second twenty year road plan

1961

•Highway Research Board

1973

•National Transport Policy committee (NTPC)

1978

•Third twenty year road plan

1981

•National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)

1995

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