India’s national highway network has expanded from 132,499 km in March 2019 to 146,560 km, the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways has disclosed.
Out of 34,800 km planned under the first phase of Bharatmala Pariyojana, 21,248 km have been constructed up to September 2025 under 796 awarded projects, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Jairam Gadkari informed the Rajya Sabha in a written response on Wednesday.
This implies that 61 per cent of the highways planned under the first phase of Bharatmala Pariyojana—the programme for developing economic corridors, feeder routes, border and coastal connectivity—has been executed since its initiation in October 2017.
The minister further noted that the national highway network length has expanded from 132,499 km in March 2019 to 146,560 km at present. The length of four‑lane and above national highways has increased 1.4 times, from 31,066 km in 2019 to 43,512 km.
The proportion of less-than two‑lane national highways has declined sharply, from 27 per cent in 2019 to just 9 per cent of the total network. Access‑controlled national high‑speed corridors (HSCs) or expressways spanning about 3,052 km have already been operationalised.
“With the above, the average freight speed on HSCs has increased from 30-35 km per hour on four‑lane national highways to about 50 km per hour on HSCs. These have increased regional connectivity and accessibility to the national highways across the country and also improved logistics efficiency, thereby leading to economic growth,” Gadkari stated.
A total of 57,125 km of national highways have been constructed during the last five fiscal years under the watch of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.