The total length of National Highways (NHs) across various States and Union Territories (UTs) is about 1,32,500 km at present. The Lane-wise distribution of NHs as on 31.03.2019 is as under:
| Sr. No. | Lane configuration of NHs | Approx. Length (km) |
| 1. | Less than 2-Lane NH standards | 36,310 |
| 2. | 2-Lane NH standards | 65,123 |
| 3. | 4-Lane or more NH standards | 31,067 |
Development and maintenance of NHs is a continuous process. The works on NHs are accordingly taken up from time to time as per inter-se priority, traffic density and availability of funds to keep the NHs in traffic worthy conditions.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways took up development of NHs/ roads under various phases of National Highways Development Project (NHDP), Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for the North East Region (SARDP-NE) including Arunachal Pradesh Package of Roads, Special Programme for Development of Roads in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas, Externally Aided Projects (EAP), National Highways (Original) [NH (O)] scheme, etc. Various phases of NHDP envisaged development of NHs to 4/6 lane and 2 lane NH standards, development of expressways, etc. Development of most of the roads/ NHs under other schemes envisages their upgradation to 2 lane NH standards.
The Ministry had taken up detailed review of NHs network with a view to develop the road connectivity to Border areas, development of Coastal roads including road connectivity for Non-Major ports, improvement in the efficiency of National Corridors, development of Economic Corridors, Inter Corridors and Feeder Routes along with integration with Sagarmala, etc., under “Bharatmala Pariyojana”. Under this proposal, the Ministry identified stretches for development of about 26,200 km length of Economic Corridors, 8,000 km of Inter Corridors, 7,500 km of Feeder Routes, 5,300 km Border and International connectivity roads, 4,100 km Coastal and Port connectivity roads, 1,900 km Expressways, National Corridor Efficiency improvement by development of ring roads around 28 cities, decongestion of about 125 choke points and 66 congestion points, development of 35 nos. of Multimodal Logistics Parks.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the proposal for investment approval for Phase-I of “Bharatmala Pariyojana” during its meeting held on 24.10.2017. “Bharatmala Pariyojana” Phase–I includes development of about 9,000 km length of Economic corridors, about 6,000 km length of Inter-corridor and feeder roads, about 5,000 km length of National Corridors Efficiency improvements, about 2,000 km length of Border and International connectivity roads, about 2,000 km length of Coastal and port connectivity roads, about 800 km length of Expressways and balance length of about 10,000 km of roads under NHDP.
The general principle for upgradation of roads under Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana includes development of Economic corridors primarily to 4/6 lane NH standards, Inter-corridor and feeder roads primarily to 4 lane NH standards and Border, International connectivity roads, Coastal and port connectivity roads primarily to 2 lane NH standards.
The programme is targeted for completion in 2021-2022.
This information was given by the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin J Gadkari in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.