Kerala, a state in Southern India, has a network of 11 National Highways, 72 State Highways and many district roads.
Kerala has 331,904 kilometres (206,236 mi) of roads, which accounts for 5.6% of India's total. [1] [2] This translates to about 9.94 kilometres (6.18 mi) of road per thousand people, compared to an average of 4.87 kilometres (3.03 mi) in the country. [1] [2] Roads in Kerala include 1,812 kilometres (1,126 mi) of national highway; 1.6% of the nation's total, 4,342 kilometres (2,698 mi) of state highway; 2.5% of the nation's total, 27,470 kilometres (17,070 mi) of district roads; 4.7% of the nation's total, 33,201 kilometres (20,630 mi) of urban (municipal) roads; 6.3% of the nation's total, and 158,775 kilometres (98,658 mi) of rural roads; 3.8% of the nation's total. [3] Most of Kerala's west coast is accessible through the NH 66 (previously NH 17 and 47); and the eastern side is accessible through state highways. [4] New projects for hill and coastal highways were recently announced under KIIFB. [5] National Highway 66, with the longest stretch of road (1,622 kilometres (1,008 mi)) connects Kanyakumari to Mumbai; it enters Kerala via Talapady in Kasargod and passes through Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Guruvayur, Kochi, Alappuzha, Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram before entering Tamil Nadu. [4] Palakkad district is generally referred to as the Gateway of Kerala, due to the presence of the Palakkad Gap in the Western Ghats, through which the northern (Malabar) and southern (Travancore) parts of Kerala are connected to the rest of India via road and rail. The state's largest checkpoint, Walayar, is on NH 544, in the border town between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, through which a large amount of public and commercial transportation reaches the northern and central districts of Kerala. [6] Kottayam has the maximum length of roads among the districts of Kerala, while Wayanad accounts for minimum. [7]
Agency-wise by distribution [8]
| Sl. No. | Name of Department/Agency | Length (KM) | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panchayats | 265421.120 | 80.00 |
| 2 | PWD (R&B) | 31811.601 | 9.6 |
| 3 | Municipalities | 18411.870 | 2.0 |
| 4 | Corporation | 6644 | 4.381 |
| 5 | Forests | 4575.770 | 1.5 |
| 6 | Irrigation | 2611.900 | 0.79 |
| 7 | National Highways† | 1568.0 | 0.47 |
| 8 | Others (Railways,KSEB) | 328 | 0.09 |
| Total | 331372.261 | 100 |
†NHAI maintains 444.9 km and Kerala PWD (NH) section maintains rest of the National Highways from direction of MORTH
Kerala has eight National Highways which run for about 1811.52 km. Kerala has narrower National Highways compared to other parts of India. Kerala is the only state, other than Goa, which has requested for narrower highways in the state. NHAI upgrades highways to a minimum 4-lane, 60-meter-wide, grade-separated highway or a better standard across India. But in Kerala, National Highways are being upgraded to 45-meter-wide highways. [9] Previous Kerala State Government had requested the NHAI to reduce the width of National highways in the state to 30-meters, although neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are upgrading their National Highways as 60-meters or more wider highways, with futuristic provision for 6/8-lane highway. [10] The reason cited by the State Government was the difficulty and disinterest in Land Acquisition, which is the responsibility of the State Government. NHAI had stopped working on many of the highway widening/upgrade projects as there are opposition from the local population for highway widening. Among Kerala's districts, Ernakulam has the maximum length of National Highway, which accounts for 172.76 km. [7] Wayanad has the minimum length of National Highway in Kerala. [7]
Government has taken steps to develop the NH 66 (Kasargod to Thiruvananthapuram) into six lane. But, proposed six lane highways with 45 m Right of Way in Kerala will not have the wide medians to help the trucks and large vehicles to take the U-Turn without blocking the high speed traffic, which is a common feature in other parts of India. [11] Wider median also helps to block the opposite side vehicle headlamp with plants.
Kerala's first six lane National Highway is the NH 544 stretch between Thrissur and Vadakkencherry. Kerala's first and biggest six lane tunnel highway is also on this stretch at Kuthiran. It is the part of Kochi -Thrissur-Palakkad- Walayar stretch of NH 544.
Bharatmala Pariyojana has identified 418 km of national highway and State highway stretches in Kerala. Keeping in view a futuristic approach, it has been decided that the land for any 4/6-lane highway road will be acquired with a right of way (RoW) of 60 m irrespective of the width of the carriageway. [12]
Kerala has not been allocated Greenfield 8-lane access-controlled expressways like other south Indian states as part of Bharatmala Pariyojana, as many brownfield projects of NHDP projects have still not started.
The Palakkad—Thrissur—Kochi stretch of NH 544 is a part of North-South and East-West Corridor of the Indian highway system. Due to the previous land acquisition crisis, NHAI had also stopped the feasibility study of the project under NHDP–Phase-III scheme in the stretch of NH 66 earlier, but has begun again after the strict demand of present Chief Minister. [13] There was a proposal for construction of standalone ring road/bypasses around Thiruvananthapuram City under NHDP Phase VII.
There are 72 state highways in Kerala. Of them, MC Road (Main-Central Road), proposed Hill Highway (Kerala) and Main Eastern Highway are the largest. The respective State Highway number is displayed on the top of all milestones (black in colour in green background) on the respective road.
The State Road Improvement Project (SRIP) envisages to improve and upgrade 1200 km of State Highways and Major District Roads to enhance the capacity and riding quality with proper maintenance plan, road safety and reducing the expenditure on periodic maintenance. The project is implemented by Road Infrastructure Company Kerala (RICK) Ltd. Road Infrastructure Company Kerala Limited (RICK) was incorporated in March 2012 as a Special Purpose Vehicle with paid up capital contributed by Government of Kerala (51%) and Kerala Road Fund Board (49%). [15] About 29 road sections totalling to a length of 469 km has identified for rehabilitation improvements by the company. Rehabilitation project include strengthening/reconstruction of pavement/structure, junction improvements, provision of road furniture, bus bay byes and other traffic management measures. The company plans to upgrade 32 roads of 644 km. Upgrades involve widening the carriageway with paved shoulder (1.5 m on either side), widening of narrow CD works, geometric improvements, junction improvements, identifying the grade separation requirements, etc.
Sustainable and Planned Effort to Ensure Infrastructure Development (SPEEID) KERALA - Kerala government have formulated the project of constructing flyovers, bridges and roads at selected areas in the state in order to reduce the increasing traffic congestion. The project named as ‘SPEEID KERALA’ comprises 23 projects at the estimated cost of `10,000 Crore. The Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB), the special purpose vehicle under the PWD, had been entrusted with the task of mobilizing funds for the projects. Work of 5 projects are in progress. [16]
The Kerala State Transport Project, costing 336 million US dollars (Rs 1612 crores) - of which World Bank financing is US $255 million (Rs 1224 crores) and State's contribution is US $79.00 million(Rs 388 crores), aims to improve traffic flow and road safety on Kerala State's primary road network, and to strengthen the institutional and financial capacity of Kerala's key transport sector agencies. The KSTP was designed to upgrade 581 km and cover 1000 km under maintenance in two Phases. However, due to several reasons including delay in land acquisition, only 254 km of Phase I road was upgraded and maintenance works for 1180 km were carried out from June 2002 and December 2009. The KSTP phase 2 envisages upgrading 363 km of SH and MDR, Road Safety Management and Institutional Strengthening of PWD. The total Project cost is 445 million USD out of which 216 million USD is loan assistance from World Bank.
District-wise SH length of roads [17]
| Sl.No | Name of District | State Highways |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thiruvananthapuram | 180.36 |
| 2 | Kollam | 123.79 |
| 3 | Alappuzha | 170.841 |
| 4 | Pathanamthitta | 249.194 |
| 5 | Kottayam | 406.531 |
| 6 | Idukki | 998.372 |
| 7 | Ernakulam | 325.206 |
| 8 | Thrissur | 374.033 |
| 9 | Palakkad | 245.987 |
| 10 | Malappuram | 374.764 |
| 11 | Kozhikode | 377.173 |
| 12 | Wayanad | 128.955 |
| 13 | Kannur | 244.665 |
| 14 | Kasaragode | 141.78 |
| Total† | 4341.651 | |
†Maintained by PWD (R&B) as on 31-3-2015
| District | Major District Road (MDR) in km | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| District wise map of Kerala | Name | Length | MDR per 10,000 people |
 | Kasaragod | 1460.66 | 11.2 |
| Kannur | 2265.24 | 9.0 | |
| Wayanad | 1029.31 | 12.6 | |
| Kozhikode | 2454.64 | 8.0 | |
| Malappuram | 2680.15 | 6.5 | |
| Palakkad | 2184.7 | 7.8 | |
| Thrissur | 2064.21 | 6.6 | |
| Ernakulam | 3085.28 | 9.4 | |
| Idukki | 2867.36 | 25.9 | |
| Kottayam | 3456.2 | 17.5 | |
| Alappuzha | 2031.4 | 9.6 | |
| Pathanamthitta | 1472.33 | 12.3 | |
| Kollam | 2202.86 | 8.4 | |
| Thiruvananthapuram | 2557.74 | 7.8 | |
| Total† | 31812.1 | 9.5 | |
†Maintained by PWD (R&B) as in 2019-20
The government is planning to improve all the major city roads in Kerala. [18] Roads in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Punalur city roads will get some major facelifts through this project. [19]
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$7.5 billion). The project was planned in 1999, launched in 2001, and was completed in 7 January 2012.
The National highways in India are a network of trunk roads owned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. National highways have flyover access or some controlled-access, where entrance and exit is through the side of the flyover, at each intersection of highways flyovers are provided to bypass the city/town/village traffic and these highways are designed for speed of 100 km/h. Some national highways have interchanges in between, but do not have total controlled-access throughout the highways. It is constructed and managed by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), and the public works departments (PWD) of state governments. Currently, the longest National Highway in India is National Highway 44 at 4,112 km. India started four laning of major national highways with National Highway Development Project (NHDP). As of March 2022 India have approximately 35,000 km of four laned National highways.
The National Highways Authority of India or NHAI is an autonomous agency of the Government of India, set up in 1995 and is responsible for management of a road network of over 50,000 km of National Highways out of 1,32,499 km in India. It is a nodal agency of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). NHAI has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for satellite mapping of highways.
Palakkad, also known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery, is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the Palakkad District. Palakkad is most densely populated municipality and fourth-most densely populated city in Kerala. It was established before Indian independence under British rule and known by the name Palghat. Palakkad is famous for the ancient Palakkad Fort, which is in the heart of the city and was captured and rebuilt by Hyder Ali in 1766. The city is about 347 kilometres (216 mi) northeast of the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.
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 Corridor (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. As of 31 March 2018, 6875 of the 7142 kilometers project has been finished.
The Main Central Road popularly known as MC Road is the arterial State Highway starting from Kesavadasapuram in Trivandrum city and ends at Angamaly, a suburb of Kochi city in Ernakulam District, in the state of Kerala, India. It is designated as State Highway 1 by the Kerala Public Works Department. The highway was built by Raja Kesavadas, Dewan of Travancore, in the 1790s. Plan for a new highway called Thiruvananthapuram–Angamaly Greenfield Highway, which runs parallel to the MC Road is proposed and is under early stage of development.
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. As of July 2023, India has a total length of 5,145 km (3,197 mi) of expressways. These are controlled-access highways where entrance and exits are controlled by the use of cloverleaf or 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 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.
National Highway 966 is a highway which connects Palakkad, Malappuram and Kozhikode district headquarters in Kerala. It was previously known as NH 213. It covers a distance of 125 km. At Ramanattukara, near Kozhikode, it joins NH 66. At Palakkad it joins NH 544, which connects Coimbatore and Cochin through Palakkad. The Palakkad–Kozhikode Greenfield Highway has been proposed in order to decongest the traffic on NH 966 and reduce travelling time between Kozhikode and Palakkad.
State Highway 2 is a State Highway in Kerala, India that starts from Thiruvananthapuram Peroorkada and ends near Thenmala Kollam by joining with Kollam-Tirumangalam NH-744. The highway is 73.2 km long. The major towns in this highway are Nedumangad, Palode and Kulathupuzha.
Kundannoor is a region in the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala, India.It is also the place where the legend Noel Paul born. It is located around 3.5 km from Vytilla Junction and around 7 km from Ernakulam Junction Railway Station. Kundanoor is located on the busiest road of the city and state, the Kochi Bypass, at the junction of three National Highways, namely NH 66, NH 85 and NH 966B. NH 966B is the second shortest National highway in India.
Kerala Public Works Department (KPWD) is a department under the government of the state of Kerala, India. It manages the construction and maintenance of civil structures owned by the government viz; government buildings, government owned hospitals, roads, bridges etc. The KPWD was formed in 1956 following reorganization of states.
National Highway 66, commonly referred to as NH 66, is a mostly 4 lane 1640 km long busy National Highway that runs roughly north–south along the western coast of India, parallel to the Western Ghats. It connects Panvel to Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari), passing through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The district capital of Wayanad is Kalpetta town. Kalpetta has very good road connectivity with the rest of Kerala and neighboring South Indian cities. National Highway 766 (India) NH766 connects Kalpetta with Kozhikode and Mysore. State Highways connect Kalpetta with Ooty in Tamil Nadu and Madikeri in Karnataka.
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.
Kozhikode district has an extensive network of road, rail and air travel services. Kozhikode city is the epicenter of the district. Vatakara and Thamarassery are other transport hubs.
National Highway 179A, commonly referred to as NH 179A, is a national highway in India, which comes under Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India. It is a secondary route of National Highway 79. NH-179A traverses the state of Tamil Nadu in India.
Thiruvananthapuram–Kasaragod Coastal Highway is a 625 km planned coastal highway running parallel to Arabian Sea in Kerala, India. It is proposed and being constructed with a width of 14 m and begin from Pozhiyoor in Thiruvananthapuram district and ends at Kunjathur in Kasaragod district. The total estimated cost of the project is ₹6,500 crore, which is being borne by KIFBI.
Palakkad–Kozhikode Greenfield Highway is a 121-kilometre-long planned greenfield access-controlled highway in Kerala, India. The highway, which is proposed under the Bharatmala project, is expected to reduce the travel time between Palakkad and Kozhikode to two hours and decongest traffic on the existing NH 966. It also interconnects the national highways 544 and 66.
