North-south & east-west corridor: A new economic silk road of India is also a gateway to East Asia

Abstract

The National Highways Authority of India initiated the National Highway Development Program in 1998 to ease chronic capacity constraints by upgrading key arteries of the national highways network. The program upgraded into four lanes the following highway corridors: (i) corridor connecting the major metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata—known as the golden quadrilateral; (ii) north–south corridor connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari (4,000 km); and (iii) east–west corridor that connects Silchar to Porbandar (3,300 km). In combination with the Golden Quadrilateral network, and port connectivity highways, the North-South-East-West Corridor forms a key part of the Indian highway network, connecting many of its important manufacturing, commerce and cultural centers. As of May 2012, India has completed and placed in use some 15,800 kilometers of such 4-lane highways. The North-South-East-West project is managed by the National Highways Authority of India under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. This is a 4,000 kilometres corridor via National Highway 44 (Srinagar-Udhampur-Jammu–Jalandhar–Delhi–Agra–Gwalior–Jhansi–Narsinghpur-Lakhnadon–Nagpur-Hyderabad-Bengaluru-Salem–Madurai-Kanyakumari), branch road National Highway 544 (Salem–Coimbatore–Palakkad-Kochi). This is a 3,300 kilometres corridor via National Highway 27 (Porbandar–Rajkot-Samakhiali–Radhanpur–Kota–Jhansi–Kanpur-Lucknow–Ayodhya-Muzaffarpur–Darbhanga-Supaul-Purnia–Kishanganj-Galgalia–Bijni–Guwahati–Nagaon–Dabaka–Silchar).