Indian Road Network - History

History

The first evidence of road development in the Indian subcontinent can be traced back to approximately 4000 BC from the ancient cities of Harrapa and Mohenjodaro of the Indus Valley Civilization.

Ruling emperors and monarchs of ancient India had constructed numerous brick roads in the cities. One of the most famous highways of medieval India is the Grand Trunk Road. The Grand Trunk Road began in Sonargaon near Dhaka in Bangladesh and ended at Peshawar in modern-day Pakistan. In India, it linked several important cities from Kolkata in the east to Amritsar in the west, while passing through the cities of Patna, Varanasi, Kanpur, Agra, Delhi, Panipat, Pipli, Ambala, Rajpura, Ludhiana, and Jalandhar.

Locally called the GT Road, the Grand Trunk Road, was the road used by Brigadier General John Nicholson of the British Empire to quickly move his troops, hundreds of miles, to Delhi in 1857. This road allowed him to lead the battle that restored British occupation of Delhi after the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

By the end of British occupation in 1947, India inherited a poor road network infrastructure. Between 1947 and 1988, India witnessed no new major projects, poor maintenance. Predominantly all roads were single lane, most unpaved. India had no expressways, and less than 200 kilometres of 4-lane highways. In 1988, the National Highways Authority of India was established in India by an Act of Parliament. This autonomous entity came into existence on 15th June, 1989. The Act empowered this entity to develop, maintain and manage India' road network through National Highways. However, even though the Authority was created in 1988, not much happened till India introduced widespread economic liberalization of the early 1990s. Since 1995, the authority has privatized road network development in India, and delivered by December 2011, over 70,000 kilometers of National Highways, of which 16,500 kilometers are 4-lane or 6-lane modern highways.