Maharashtra has the largest national and state highways network in the country, according to the annual Basic Road Statistics of India publication brought out by the Transport Research Wing of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.
The State Highways constitute 2.8 percent of total road network in the country and the total length of State Highways as on 31.03.2019 was at 1, 79,535. Maharashtra has the largest State Highways network in the country 17.83 % (32005 Km) followed by Karnataka 10.85 % (19473 Km), Gujarat 9.33 % (16746 Km), Rajasthan 8.39 % (15061 Km) and Andhra Pradesh 7.52 % (13500 Km). These five States accounted for 53.9% of the total State Highways network in the country.
Maharashtra also has the largest network of National Highways with 17,757 km (13.4%) followed by Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan with 11,737 km (8.9 %) and 10,342km (7.8 %) respectively, as on March 31, 2019, according to the report which was released today.
The report reveals that National Highways constitute 2.09 % of total road network in the country and the total length of National Highways as on March 31, 2019 was at 1, 32,499, registering an increase of 4.9 % over previous year.
Rural Roads (including JRY roads) constitute 71.4 % of total road network in the country and its length rose to 45, 22,228 km on 31st March, 2019 registering a growth of 2.5 % over previous year. Maharashtra accounted for the largest network of Rural Roads with 4,26,327 km (11.7%) followed by Assam 3,72,510 km (10.2%), Bihar 2,59,507 km (7.1%), Uttar Pradesh 2,55,576 km (7.0%) and Madhya Pradesh 2,32,344 km (6.4%). These five States account for 42.4 % of the total Rural Roads in the country, the report states.
Road transport is the dominant segment in India’s transport sector and has contributed 3.06 per cent to GVA against the total transport sector contribution of 4.58 percentages for the year 2019-20, whereas the share of Railways has contributed 0.74 per cent, Air Transport 0.12 per cent and Water Transport 0.08 per cent. Road Transport also serves as the feeder to railway, shipping and air traffic.
