Highway Planning in India

In 1854, Load Dalhousie ( Governor General ) formed the Central Public Work Department in the same form that exist today and after first world was British Government passed a resolution in 1927 regarding a better road network in India.

Taking this in to consideration British Government formed the committee under Mr. M.R. Jayakar in 1927.

Recommendation by Jayakar Committee ( In 1928 )

• Road development should be consider as national interest.
• An extra tax should be levied on petrol and diesel for the development of road  and maintenance of road.
• A semi official technical body should be established for technical development, design and specifications.
• A research and development organization should be established.
• Mr. Jayakar and his team give more preference to the long term planning of road. i.e. 20 years road plan.

Results of Jayakar Committee 

• Participation of fund for road development, The Central Road Fund (CRF) was formed in 1929.
• A semi official technical body, Indian Road Congress (IRC) was formed in 1934.
• Motor Vehicle Act started in 1939, ( revised in 1989).
• central Road Research Institute (CRRI) was formed in 1950. 
• Various 20 years road planning:

1. Nagpur Road Plan (1943-1963)
2. Bombay Road Plan (1961-1981)
3. Lucknow Road Plan (1981-2001)

Nagpur Road Development Plan (1943-1963)

The plan was started in 1943 with a major goal in planning for road development in scientific manner, the road density of 16 km of road length per 100 sq km area was targeted in this road plan. Star and Grid pattern was recommended for this plan and plan was divided in five main categories,

1. National Highway
2. State Highway
3. Major District Road 
4. Other District Road
5. Village Road

In Nagpur Road Development Plan total targeted road length was 5,32,500 km.

Bombay Road Development Plan (1961-1981)

Plan was likely start in 1963 but it was start before that i.e. in 1961, the targeted road density was twice as compare to first road development plan i.e. 32 km of road length per 100 sq km area with star and grid road pattern. 1600 km of Expressway was also proposed in this plan. The maximum distance of any place in a developed or agricultural area would be 6.4 km from a metalled road and 2.4 km from any category roads. 

In Bombay Road Development Plan total targeted road length was 10,57,300 km.

Lucknow Road Development Plan (1981-2001)

The main purpose of this road development plan was to connect all villages with over 500 population should be connected by all weather road. The overall road density was targeted as 82 km per 100 sq km area. The National Highway should be expanded to form Square grids or Rectangular grids of 100 km sides so that no part of the country is more than 50 km away from National Highway. In this plan roads was classified into,

1. Primary Road
2. Secondary Road
3. Tertiary Road

2000 km expressways have been considered in this plan along major traffic corridors to provide fast travels. 

In Lucknow Road Development Plan total targeted road length was 27,00,000 km.