When connectivity counts roads become vital.

Roads are the nervous system of any country’s economy. They add connectivity and smoother mobility of goods from one place to another. Anywhere in the world, roads have their unique status and hold prime importance to the holistic development of a country’s economy and well being.

Glimpse of history vis-à-vis roads
Talking India, when we delve into the history, we find an amazing and robust connectivity stretching 2600 km across the breadth of Indian subcontinent in the form of formidable Grand Trunk Road. A living and vibrant work of engineering way back in 16th century, the GT Road was built under the mentorship of Sher Shah Suri, the then emperor of India. This piece of marvel connected Kolkata in Far East to Afghanistan in the west. In fact fascinated by this majestic and meandering wonder of medieval age, Rudyard Kipling, the renowned author of Kim described the GT road as, “such a river of life as exists nowhere else in the world”. True enough, such farsightedness becomes our heritage and inspires to build similar kind of majestic connectivity for maximum mileage to economy.

Golden Quadrilateral
In the similar vein Indian government has embarked on an ambitious plans of the largest expressway project in the form of Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) stretching over 5,846 kms of four/six lane expressway connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, at the cost of Rs. 60,000 crores (US $ 12.317 bn). Managed by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the latest report submitted in the Lok Sabha states that 5,409 km has been completed by June 2006. The report mentions that Delhi-Mumbai stretch is complete with 100% construction done, 94% is complete between Mumbai and Chennai, 92% between Chennai and Kolkata and 84% is ready between Delhi and Kolkata. The final date of completion is fast approaching, which is December 2006. With the completion of this GQ, planners and economists including transporters are highly optimistic and looking forward to an unhindered and fast pace to goods mobility, which in turn will reduce costing, jams and similar blockages, and greatly improve transportation and speed up transactions and thus facilitating better economy.
Networking through roads

India has one of the largest road networks in the world, aggregating to about 3.32 million km at present. The country’s road network consists of National Highways, State Highways, Major/other District Roads and Village/Rural Roads. Need for better and faster roads have always been felt. Specially in the present scenario when the country has become a hot global destination, the onus lies on the government to firm up its infrastructure and provide world class mobility and connectivity.

Plans to ensure growth
Statistics show that the number of vehicles has been growing at a rapid pace of 12% per annum over the last few years and traffic on roads is growing at 7-10% per annum. The share of road traffic has been growing from 12% of freight traffic and 31.6% of passenger traffic in 1950-51 to a projected 65% freight traffic and 85% passenger traffic by the end of the Tenth plan period (2002-07).

The Ninth Plan (1997-2002) laid emphasis on coordinated and balanced development of road network in the country. During this period the government came up with massive National Highways Development Pogramme (NHDP), which has shown some encouraging results. During the Tenth Plan (2002-07) Road development has taken front seat and become an integral part of the total transport system of the country with the focus on strengthening three Secondary Systems: State Highways, Major District Roads and Rural Roads.

The central government is responsible for the national Highway system. The total length of the network as of today is 65,569 km. Along with the ambitious GQ project, NHDP is also going ahead with North-South and East-West Corridors comprising the National Highways connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari including Kochi-Salem spur and Silchar to Porbandar, which is about 7,300 km stretch. Both these corridors are slated to finish by December 2007.
In order to ensure better and faster connectivity to the country’s 10 major ports, NHDP is also implementing four lane of 361 km high-end road facility. The connectivity to Kandla Port is already complete.

Roads are the lifelines of our economy and the better is the connectivity, the chances of growth increase immensely. In the new era of resurgent India, better roads are there to carry us on the fast track of growth sustaining a vibrant economy.