The Golden Quadrilateral is a national highway network connecting several major industrial, agricultural and cultural centres of India. It forms a quadrilateral with all the four major metro cities of India forming the vertices, viz., Delhi (north), Kolkata (east), Mumbai (west) and Chennai (south). Other major cities connected by this network include Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Balasore, Bhadrak, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Durgapur, Faridabad, Guntur, Gurugram, Jaipur, Kanpur, Pune, Kolhapur, Surat, Vijayawada, Eluru, Ajmer, Visakhapatnam, Bodhgaya, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Agra, Mathura, Dhanbad, Gandhinagar, Udaipur, and Vadodara. The main objective of these super highways is to reduce the travel time between the major cities of India, running roughly along the perimeter of the country. The North–South corridor linking Srinagar and Kanyakumari, and East–West corridor linking Silchar (Assam) and Porbandar (Gujarat) are additional projects. These highway projects are implemented by the National Highway Authority Of India (NHAI). At 5,846 kilometres (3,633 mi), it is the largest highway project in India and the fifth longest in the world. It is the first phase of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), and consists of two, four, and six-lane express highways, built at a cost of ₹600 billion (US$7.2 billion). The project was planned in 1999, launched in 2001, and was completed in 7 January 2012.
National Highway 8 is a 4-lane National Highway in India. According to estimates, it is the busiest highway in the subcontinent, as it connects the national capital Delhi to the financial capital Mumbai, as well as important cities Gurgaon, Jaipur, Ajmer, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Nadiad, Anand and Kheda. The total length is 1428km. Under the new numbering it has become part of the NH48.
Roads in India are an important mode of transport in India. India has a network of over 6,331,791 kilometres (3,934,393 mi) of roads. This is the second-largest road network in the world, after the United States. At of roads per square kilometre of land, the quantitative density of India's road network is equal to that of Hong Kong, and substantially higher than the United States, China, Brazil and Russia. Adjusted for its large population, India has approximately 5.13 kilometres (3.19 mi) of roads per 1,000 people, which is much lower than United States 20.5 kilometres (12.7 mi) but higher than that of China 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi). India's road network carries over 71% of its freight and about 85% of passenger traffic.
The North–South–East–West r (NS-EW) is the largest ongoing highway project in India. It is the second phase of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), and consists of building 7300 kilometers of four/six lane highways associating Srinagar, Kanyakumari, Kochi, Porbandar and Silchar, at a cost of US$12.317 billion ₹1000000000000(One lakh Crore INR). As of 19 March 2024, 6875 of the 7142 kilometers project has been finished.
The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) was a project of four laning of existing national highways and six laning of selected major national highways of India. The project was started in 1998 under the leadership of Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. National Highways account for only about 2% of the total length of roads, but carry about 40% of the total traffic across the length and breadth of the country. This project is managed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. The NHDP represents 49,260 km of roads and highways work and construction in order to boost economic development of the country. The government has planned to end the NHDP program in early 2018 and subsume the ongoing projects under a larger Bharatmala project.
Expressways are the highest class of roads in India. In July 2023, the total length of expressways in India was 5,930 km (3,680 mi), with 11,127.69 km (6,914.43 mi) under construction. These are controlled-access highways where entrance and exits are controlled by the use of cloverleaf, three-way, trumpet or grade separated interchanges that are incorporated into the design of the expressway and designed for maximum speed of 120 km/h, whereas National highways are flyover access or tolled, 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/h. Some roads are not access-controlled expressways but are still named expressways, such as the Bagodara–Tarapur Expressway, Biju Expressway, these are actually state highways that are not declared by the central government as an Expressway, hence not an Expressway or National Highway.
Indian Railways operates India's railway system and comes under the purview of the Ministry of Railways of Government of India. As of 2023, it maintains over 108,706 km (67,547 mi) of tracks and operates over 13,000 trains daily. According to the Ministry of Railways, a route capable of supporting trains operating at more than 160 km/h (100 mph) is considered as a higher speed or semi-high speed rail line.
Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor (MAHSR) or Mumbai–Ahmedabad HSR is an under-construction high-speed rail line, which will connect Mumbai, the financial hub of India, with Ahmedabad, the largest city in the state of Gujarat. When completed, it will be India's first high-speed rail line.
The Bharatmala Pariyojna is an ongoing project that will interconnect 550 District Headquarters through a minimum 4-lane highway by raising the number of corridors to 50 and move 80% freight traffic to National Highways by interconnecting 24 logistics parks, 66 inter-corridors (IC) of total 8,000 km (5,000 mi), 116 feeder routes (FR) of total 7,500 km (4,700 mi) and 7 north east Multi-Modal waterway ports. The project also includes development of tunnels, bridges, elevated corridors, flyovers, overpass, interchanges, bypasses, ring roads etc. to provide shortest, jam free & optimized connectivity to multiple places, it is a centrally-sponsored and funded Road and Highways project of the Government of India. This ambitious umbrella programme will subsume all existing Highway Projects including the flagship National Highways Development Project (NHDP), launched by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998. Bharatmala is mainly focused on connecting remote areas and satellite cities of megacities such as Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad etc. The total investment for 83,677 km (51,994 mi) committed new highways is estimated at ₹10.63 lakh crore (US$130 billion), making it the single largest outlay for a government road construction scheme. The project will build highways from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and then cover the entire string of Himalayan territories - Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand - and then portions of borders of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alongside Terai, and move to West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and right up to the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur and Mizoram. Special emphasis will be given on providing connectivity to far-flung border and rural areas including the tribal and backward areas.
Setu Bharatam was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 4 March 2016 at a budget of ₹102 billion (US$1.2 billion), with an aim to make all national highways free of railway crossings by 2019.
The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) was incorporated in 2016 to manage the High Speed Rail Corridor in India. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Government of India.
Delhi–Varanasi High Speed Rail Corridor is India's second High-speed rail project after the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor. The 958-kilometre (595 mi) HSR corridor will connect Varanasi to Delhi through 13 stations along with a 123 km long spur connecting Lucknow and Ayodhya.
Delhi–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor is a proposed high-speed rail line connecting India's capital Delhi with the city of Ahmedabad. When completed, it will be India's second high-speed rail line. It is also said to be an extension of Mumbai–Ahmedabad HSR corridor.
The Chennai-Mysuru high speed rail corridor is India's third high-speed rail project after the Mumbai Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor and Delhi Varanasi High Speed Rail Corridor. The 435 km HSR corridor will connect Chennai to Mysuru through 9 stations.
Surat high-speed railway station is an under construction high-speed railway station on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor. It is located at Antroli near Surat and Kadodara in Gujarat, India. It is the seventh station of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor, after Bilimora station and before Bharuch station. It is scheduled to be completed by December 2024, and is slated to become operational by 2026 along with the opening of the Gujarat section of the high-speed rail corridor. The station will have the third depot of the high-speed rail corridor, just south of it near Niyol railway station.
Bilimora high-speed railway station is an under construction high-speed railway station on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor. It is located at Kesali village near Bilimora, Gujarat, India. It is the sixth station of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor, after Vapi station and before Surat station. It is scheduled to be completed by December 2024, and is slated to become operational by 2026 along with the opening of the Gujarat section of the high-speed rail corridor.
Virar high-speed railway station, shortened to Vasai-Virar station, is an under-construction high-speed railway station on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor. This station is located near Sahakar Nagar, Virar East, Virar, Maharashtra, India. It is the third station of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor, after Thane station and before Boisar station.
Anand-Nadiad high-speed railway station is an under construction high-speed railway station on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor. This station is located near Uttarsanda, close to Nadiad, in Kheda district, Gujarat, India. It is the tenth station of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor, after Vadodara station and before Ahmedabad station. As the station is located between the cities of Anand and Nadiad, it will serve both of them, hence 'Anand-Nadiad' is named together.
Sabarmati high-speed railway station is an under construction high-speed railway station on the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor. This station is located near Sabarmati Junction railway station in Ram Nagar, Sabarmati, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It is the twelfth and the last station, as well as the northern terminus of the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor.
