National Highways Authority of India

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is an autonomous agency of the Government of India

Government of India

The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

, responsible for management of a network of over 60,000 km of National Highways in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The Authority is a nodal agency of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Establishment

The NHAI was created through the promulgation of the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988. In February 1995, the Authority was formally made an autonomous body.

It is responsible for the development, maintenance, management and operation of National Highways, totaling over 70548 km (43,836.6 mi) in length.

Projects

The NHAI has the mandate to implement the National Highway Development Project (NHDP). The NHDP is under implementation in Phases.

Phase I: Approved in December 2000, at an estimated cost of INR 300 Billion, it included the Golden Quadrilateral
Golden Quadrilateral
The Golden Quadrilateral is a highway network connecting India's four largest metropolises: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, thus forming a quadrilateral of sorts. Four other top ten metropolises: Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Surat, are also served by the network...

(GQ), portions of the NS-EW Corridors
North-South and East-West Corridor
The North-South–East-West Corridor is the largest ongoing highway project in India. It is the second phase of the National Highways Development Project , and consists of building 7300 kilometers of four/six lane expressways connecting Srinagar, Kanyakumari, Porbandar and Silchar, at a cost of...

, and connectivity of major ports to National Highways.
Phase II: Approved in December 2003, at an estimated cost of INR 343 Billion, it included the completion of the NS-EW corridors and another 486 km (302 mi) of highways.
Phase IIIA: This phase was approved in March 2005, at an estimated cost of INR 222 Billion, it includes an upgrade to 4-lanes of 4035 km (2,507.2 mi)of National Highways.
Phase IIIB: This was approved in April 2006, at an estimated cost of INR 543 Billion, it includes an upgrade to 4-lanes of 8074 km (5,017 mi) of National Highways.
Phase V: Approved in October 2006, it includes upgrades to 6-lanes for 6500 km (4,038.9 mi), of which 5700 km (3,541.8 mi) is on the GQ. This phase is entirely on a DBFO basis.
Phase VI: This phase, approved in November 2006, will develop 1000 km (621.4 mi) of expressways at an estimated cost of INR 167 Billion.
Phase VII: This phase, approved in December 2007, will develop ring-roads, bypasses and flyovers to avoid traffic bottlenecks on selected stretches at a cost of INR 167 Billion.

The progress of the NHDP can be tracked from the NHAI official website, which updates maps on regular basis.
NHAI helps in implementing Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North Eastern Region (SARDP-NE); a project to upgrade National Highways connecting state capitals to 2 lane or 4 lane in north eastern region.

Establishment

Projects

See also