Expressways are the highest class of roads in India. As of December 2022, India has a total length of 3,346.3 km (2,079.3 mi) of expressways. These are controlled-access highways where entrance and exits are controlled by the use of ramps or interchange or trumphet that are incorporated into the design of the expressway and designed for minimum speed of 120 km/hr, whereas National highways are flyover access or controlled-access highway, where entrance and exit is through the side of the flyover,at each intersection of highway with road, flyovers are provided to bypass the city/town/village traffic and these highways are designed for speed of 100 km/hr. Some roads are not access-controlled expressways, but are still officially called expressways, such as the Biju Expressway, these state highways (officially expressways) do not meet expressway standards.
Mumbai–Pune Expressway is the first 6-lane operational expressway in India started in 2002. Expressways follow standards set by Indian Roads Congress and Bureau of Indian Standards.
Currently, the longest expressway in India is the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway(Phase-I ) at 520 km (320 mi) and the widest expressway is the Delhi - Dasna (UP border) section of the Delhi–Meerut Expressway with 14 lanes.
Development
Greenfield Expressways in India are designed as 12-lane wide Expressways with the initial construction of 8 lanes with minimum speed set as 120 km/hr for all type of vehicles. Land for 4-lane future expansion is reserved in the center of the expressways. Greenfield Expressways are designed to avoid inhabited areas and go through new alignments to bring development to new areas and to reduce land acquisition costs and construction timelines. The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is an example of a new 12-lane approach with initial 8-lane construction.
Brownfield National Highway Project is the widening/development of existing National Highways. The Upgradation of highway is a Brownfield expressway Project which has high traffic demand and is a part of urban setup. The Upgradation is carried from 4 Lane to 6 Lane on EPC mode.[1] 43,000 km state highways have been converted to National Highways in last 8 years.[2]
The majority of the investment required for constructing expressways comes from the central government. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are the only states which are investing in building expressways through dedicated expressway corporations.[3]
The National Expressways Authority of India operating under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will be in-charge of the construction and maintenance of expressways.[4] The National Highways Development Project by the government of India aims to expand the country's current expressway network and plans to add an additional 18,637 km of greenfield expressways by 2025 apart from building 4 lane greenfield national highways of 50,000 km length.[5][6] Currently NHDP Phase-6 and NHDP Phase-7 construction is going on along with Bharatmala project.
Bharatmala is an ecosystem of road development which includes tunnels, bridges, elevated corridors,flyovers, overpass, interchanges, bypasses, ring roads etc. to provide shortest & optimized connectivity to multiple places, it is a centrally-sponsored and funded road and highways project of the Government of India[7] with a target of constructing 83,677 km[8] of new highways over the next five years, was started in 2017 as well as conversion of 4 lane highways into 6 lane Brownfield expressways & some state highways into NH/NE.[9] Phase I of the Bharatmala project involves the construction of 34,800 km of highways (including the remaining projects under NHDP) at an estimated cost of ₹5.35 lakhcrore by 2021–22.[10]
Characteristics
As of July 2022[update], 24 expressways with a combined length of 3,219.3 km (2,000.4 mi) are operational in India. In 2017, the country had only approximately 934 km of expressways. All the expressways are 6 or more lane wide controlled-access highways, where entrance and exit are controlled by the use of slip roads.India has the second largest road network in the world with 6.3 million kms.[11]
Expressways By State
List of operational expressways by state, as of December 2022:
State Expressways are funded by State/Central Government to connect areas within the state. These expressways reduce travel time, allowing for more more efficient travel and fuel savings . This also allows for a more equal distribution of goods, especially to rural areas.These expressways are not part of National Expressways but may be operated by state authority or national authority.
Expressways within a city to bypass city traffic such as ring roads, bypass, freeways and elevated roads exist entirely within a city or metropolitan area. These expressways direct heavy traffic to the outskirts freeing city roads of traffic. This also allows outside traffic to directly pass the city instead of going through it further limiting traffic within a city.
^ ab"NOTICE INVITING TENDER"(PDF). MAHARASHTRA STATE ROAD DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION LIMITED, MUMBAI(A Govt. of Maharashtra Undertaking). Retrieved 12 October 2022.
