Today, the making and upkeeping of roads is one of the country’s most continuous and money-draining tasks. Driven by the ambition to connect the various regions of the country with high quality motorable roads the ministry of surface transport so far has laid down a 52010 km length of national highways in the country distributed over various states.
Motorable roads were built much after the period of the popularization of the automobile both in Europe and in the United States. The experimental version of it surfaced in Germany after World War I in 1922 with the six-mile Ayus highway near Berlin. In 1924, in Rome, the first modern automobile-oriented road, the autostrada, was opened to the use of fast traffic in the environs of the city. Speed was assured through limited access.
In the 1930s, Germany began to build the Autobahns, free-flowing roads with grade separations and limited access, allowing motorists rapid departure from cities. Later Hitler saw great military value in these roads and began to construct a network to reach all Germany’s borders, though it was still incomplete in 1945. Only after World War II did other European countries begin to copy these quintessentially automotive roads.
The network of roads was expanding abroad. Highways of four driving lanes, grade-separations at route intersections, and channelised turns at such intersections came in the ‘40s when limited access was introduced.
In India, too, like other parts of the world, the advent of the automobile found a similarly primitive natural road system that has only over a full century been brought up to the standard called for by automotive travel. The Grand Trunk road by Sher Shah Suri was one of the only few motorable roads in the country. However, Indian road making has gone through a revolution in the last 40-50 years. Continuous expansion, maintenance and improvement have been a part of this revolution. Efforts are now been made to improve the existing National Highways not only by strengthening and rehabilitation of existing assets but also by constructing new roads and bridges over missing links, improvement of low grade sections and widening to 4-lanes. The work of modernization of the system through construction of some expressways is also in progress. Currently, in the 9th Plan, the Ministry of Surface Transport outlines a massive of job of nation building. It would decide the phased removal of deficiencies in the existing NH network in tune with traffic needs for 10-15 years with emphasis on high-density corridors for four laning. It would bring in highway-user oriented project planning in identifying package of project section-wise rather than isolated stretches. Also, greater attention would be given to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of dilapidated bridges for the safety of the traffic. Along with the modernization of road construction technology for speedy execution and quality assurance, there would be continuous efforts in engineering measures to improve road safety and conservation of energy. However, perhaps the most noteworthy objective is integrating the development plans with Railways and other modes of transport. North eastern region would be the first to reck on with this objective.
Now, to be a little futuristic, India plans to experiment with rubber roads. Or a step further, India might begin something on the line of Canada’s all-weather road to the Arctic Ocean.
However, all these ambitious planning falls back on funding support. Development work on the National Highways is currently done through budgetary support. To improve the position of availability of funds, steps are being taken in this direction. Cess on petrol and diesel has been levied to make funds available for Highway infrastructure development. Funds are also obtained from externally funding agencies like World Bank. Asian development Bank, OECF etc. for projects in the Highway sector. Amendments have been made in the National Highway Act to encourage private sector participation in funding of road projects on BOT (Build-Operate and Transfer) basis.
The rich variety of traffic in Indian road personifies the ethnic diversity of the country. People from all walks of life come together and pursue their destination everyday.
A quiet meander of a road, which starts its journey on the sultry sea board sometimes, peters out beside a mountain meadow or dried-up expanse of Rajasthan. How about imagining a journey on an Indian road where there are a few petrol stations, a couple of temples, a traffic light, and then suddenly nothing but the open prairie! Imagine a blue sky which is lined with geese heading to their destination. All around, the land is so flat and the light so cunning that it appears to ripple like an ocean. Only the grazing cattle and the regular geometry of power lines and telephone poles persuade the driver otherwise.
When a motor vehicle hits a criss-cross, one road runs into another road, which itself would eventually run into another road. Thanks to the labours of hundreds of barely noticed folk, the potential journey through any stretch of Indian land is endless and eternal.
However, these journeys through Indian roads begin to change rapidly with the flood of new cars. The revolution of the road would repeat the American experience. Rising levels of automobile ownership after the war led to patterns of residential suburbs and outlying shopping centres in the 1930s in America. This enlargement of the market for cars caused major restructuring of automobile manufacturing, largely ending the era of the special car for the wealthy.
In the United States, the earlier creation of a mass market for automobiles meant that urban roads were crowded with cars by the 1930s. It was this demand rather than military objectives that led to the “superhighway.” Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California were leaders in this effort.
The dominant role of the automobile in Indian transportation has arisen despite a transportation has arisen despite a transportation infrastructure that is not at all conducive to such an outcome. However, this is also subject to change in time to come.
