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Roads and railways

Industry and transport in India · Part 3 / 4 · Fact-checked on · how we check

Written with AI from the sources listed at the bottom of this page, then fact-checked by a separate AI.

How roads are classified and divided between the Union and the states, the National Highways Act (1956) and NHAI, the Golden Quadrilateral, Bharatmala, expressways, the BRO and PMGSY; then railways from the first train of 1853, zones, gauges and Project Unigauge, the Konkan Railway, the dedicated freight corridors, Vande Bharat, high-speed rail and the mountain railways on the World Heritage List.

Parts 1 and 2 showed that factories depend on moving raw materials in and finished goods out. This part covers the two land modes that do most of that work in India: roads and railways. Roads reach almost every village and carry most passengers and a large share of freight over short and medium distances; railways move bulk goods such as coal, ore, cement and grain cheaply over long distances and carry crowds of passengers between cities. The two are planned by different authorities and serve different needs, but they are meant to work together. The part first explains how roads are classified and who builds them, then the big highway programmes, then the railway's history, gauges and newer projects such as freight corridors and high-speed rail.

Few countries have as many kilometres of road as India; by the count of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, only one country has more. The Constitution splits responsibility for it. Highways declared as national highways by or under a law of Parliament are entry 23 of the Union List, while other roads are entry 13 of the State List. Under the National Highways Act, 1956, the Union declares and develops national highways, and the National Highways Authority of India, set up under an Act of 1988, builds and runs much of that network, often through private partners on toll. State highways join state capitals with district towns and are built by state public works departments. Below them come major and other district roads, and finally village roads linking each settlement to the nearest market or bigger road. Measured by length, national highways are a minor slice of the network, yet a disproportionately large part of all road traffic moves on them.

Classes of roads in India
ClassWhat it linksWho is responsible
National highwaysState capitals, ports, major cities, bordersUnion (MoRTH, NHAI); Union List entry 23
State highwaysState capital with district townsState public works departments
District roadsDistrict towns with taluka towns and marketsState and district bodies
Village roadsVillages with markets and bigger roadsPanchayats and states; PMGSY for new links
Border roadsFrontier and high-mountain areasBorder Roads Organisation

The first big push to modernise national highways came with the National Highways Development Project at the end of the 1990s. Its best-known part is the Golden Quadrilateral, about 5,846 km of four- and six-lane highway joining the four metros, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, in a rough square. The second part drew a plus sign across that square. Its vertical bar, the North–South corridor, runs from Srinagar down to Kanyakumari, and its horizontal bar, the East–West corridor, from Porbandar in Gujarat across to Silchar in Assam, meeting at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh. Together these gave trucks fast, wide routes between the main industrial regions and ports. A useful way to fix the pattern in mind is that the quadrilateral rings the metros while the two corridors run through the middle of the country, crossing each other near its centre.

The next stage is Bharatmala Pariyojana, approved by the Union Cabinet in October 2017, with a first phase of about 34,800 km. Instead of only widening single roads, it plans the network as a system: economic corridors between centres of production and consumption, inter-corridor and feeder routes, roads to the borders and to neighbouring countries, coastal and port-connectivity roads, and access-controlled expressways. An expressway allows no direct entry from roadside property and has entry and exit only at fixed points, so traffic flows fast and safely; the Mumbai–Pune Expressway, opened in 2002, was an early example, and longer ones such as the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway are now being built. The thinking behind Bharatmala links back to Part 2: well-planned highways are meant to cut freight costs and serve the industrial corridors and ports rather than run in isolation.

Two other programmes take roads where markets alone would not. The Border Roads Organisation, formed on 7 May 1960, builds and keeps open roads, bridges and tunnels in the high mountains and remote frontier areas, mainly for defence but also for the people living there. One of its best-known works is the Atal Tunnel under the Rohtang Pass, opened in October 2020, which keeps the route from Manali to the Lahaul valley usable in winter. At the other end of the scale, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, launched on 25 December 2000, aims to link every unconnected habitation above a set size with a road usable in all seasons. The size bar is 500 people on the plains, halved to 250 in hilly, desert and tribal areas, where settlements are smaller and more scattered. A village road may look small, but it lets farmers reach markets, children reach schools and patients reach hospitals in every season, which is why rural connectivity is treated as a basic development need.

Railways came to India under British rule. The first passenger train ran on 16 April 1853 from Bori Bunder in Bombay to Thane, a trip of about 34 km. Private companies, backed by guaranteed returns, then laid lines from the ports into the cotton, jute and grain districts, so the early network was shaped to carry raw materials to the coast and British goods inland. After independence the lines were brought under Indian Railways, run by the Ministry of Railways. The system is organised into zones, each under a General Manager, and every zone into divisions. It carries bulk freight such as coal, iron ore, cement, foodgrains and fertilisers, along with millions of passengers each day. City rail is a separate layer: the Kolkata Metro, opened on 24 October 1984, was India's first metro, and many cities have since built their own.

A railway's gauge is the distance between the inner faces of its two rails, and India built lines in several gauges. Broad gauge, 1,676 mm, became the main gauge; metre gauge, 1,000 mm, was used for cheaper lines in many regions; and narrow gauges of 762 mm and 610 mm served hill and feeder lines. Mixed gauges caused a real problem: where a broad-gauge line met a metre-gauge one, every passenger had to change trains and every load had to be shifted by hand, adding time, cost and damage. To end this, Indian Railways began Project Unigauge in 1992, converting metre- and narrow-gauge lines to broad gauge so that trains could run through without a break. Most of the network is now broad gauge; some heritage hill lines are kept on narrow gauge because of their historic and tourist value.

Railway gauges in India
GaugeWidth between railsUse today
Broad gauge1,676 mmMain network; target of Project Unigauge
Metre gauge1,000 mmFew remaining lines, most converted
Narrow gauge762 mmHill and heritage lines, e.g. Kalka–Shimla
Narrow gauge610 mmHill and heritage lines, e.g. Darjeeling

The Konkan Railway shows how relief shapes railway building. Between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea lies a thin coastal belt, crossed by river after river and walled in by steep hills, so for more than a century there was no direct line down the west coast. The Konkan Railway Corporation, set up in 1990 with the Union and the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala as partners, built a line of about 740 km from Roha in Maharashtra to Thokur near Mangaluru in Karnataka, passing through Goa. It was completed in 1998 and needed a great many bridges and tunnels through laterite hills and across river mouths. The line cut travel time between Mumbai and the south-west coast sharply and opened the Konkan, Goa and coastal Karnataka to faster trade. It also shows the cost of building in rugged, high-rainfall country, where landslides and heavy monsoon rain still disrupt services.

On busy trunk routes, passenger and goods trains share the same tracks, so slow freight trains are often held up to let express trains pass. A dedicated freight corridor solves this by building a separate line only for goods trains, which can then run longer, heavier and faster. The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India was set up in 2006 to build two such lines. The Eastern corridor runs about 1,337 km from Sahnewal near Ludhiana in Punjab to Sonnagar in Bihar, through the Ganga plain, and mainly carries coal for power stations, steel, cement and foodgrains. The Western corridor runs about 1,506 km from Dadri near Delhi to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai, and mainly carries containers between the northern hinterland and the western ports. Freeing the old lines of much goods traffic also leaves more room for passenger trains, and, as Part 2 showed, the corridors form the spine of the new industrial corridors.

Passenger rail is also being upgraded. Vande Bharat trains, designed and built at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, began service in February 2019 between New Delhi and Varanasi; they are semi-high-speed trains with their own motors spread along the train instead of a separate locomotive. True high-speed rail is coming through the Mumbai–Ahmedabad line of about 508 km, built with Japanese Shinkansen technology and a Japanese loan; its foundation stone was laid in September 2017. Electrification of broad-gauge lines has been pushed hard, cutting the use of imported diesel. At the other end of history, three hill lines are inscribed together as the Mountain Railways of India on UNESCO's World Heritage List: the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (1999), with the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (2005) and the Kalka–Shimla Railway (2008) added later.

Roads and railways do different jobs and are planned by different hands. Each national highway is a Union subject and other roads are state subjects, with special agencies for border areas and villages; railways are wholly a Union responsibility. Roads give door-to-door reach and flexibility, which is why trucks dominate short and medium hauls and why programmes like PMGSY matter for villages. Railways are cheaper and cleaner per tonne over long distances, which is why coal, ore and containers are being moved onto dedicated freight lines. The big projects of both modes, from the Golden Quadrilateral and Bharatmala to the freight and high-speed corridors, are increasingly planned together with the industrial corridors and ports of Part 2. Part 4 completes the picture with ports, waterways, airways and pipelines, and with how the whole transport network shapes regional development.

Exam traps

Recap

Practice questions

Q1. Consider the following statements:
1. Highways declared as national highways by or under a law of Parliament are a subject in the Union List.
2. The National Highways Authority of India was set up under the National Highways Act, 1956.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. 1 only
  2. 2 only
  3. Both 1 and 2
  4. Neither 1 nor 2
Show answer

Answer: A. 1 only

Statement 1 is correct (Union List entry 23). Statement 2 is wrong: the 1956 Act lets the Union declare national highways, but the NHAI was created by a separate Act of 1988. So 2 only, both and neither are wrong.

Q2. The North–South and East–West highway corridors of the National Highways Development Project intersect at

  1. Nagpur
  2. Jhansi
  3. Bhopal
  4. Prayagraj
Show answer

Answer: B. Jhansi

The Srinagar–Kanyakumari and Silchar–Porbandar corridors meet at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh. Nagpur, Bhopal and Prayagraj are not the crossing point.

Q3. Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the population size of unconnected habitations eligible for an all-weather road in hill, desert and tribal areas is

  1. 100 or more
  2. 250 or more
  3. 500 or more
  4. 1,000 or more
Show answer

Answer: B. 250 or more

In hill, desert and tribal areas the threshold is 250 or more. 500 or more is the threshold for the plains; 100 and 1,000 are not the scheme's thresholds.

Q4. Consider the following statements:
1. India's first passenger train ran between Bori Bunder (Bombay) and Thane in 1853.
2. Project Unigauge aims to convert broad-gauge lines to metre gauge.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. 1 only
  2. 2 only
  3. Both 1 and 2
  4. Neither 1 nor 2
Show answer

Answer: A. 1 only

Statement 1 is correct (16 April 1853). Statement 2 reverses the project: Unigauge converts metre- and narrow-gauge lines to broad gauge. So 2 only, both and neither are wrong.

Q5. The Konkan Railway passes through which of the following states?
1. Maharashtra
2. Goa
3. Karnataka
4. Kerala
Select the correct answer using the code given below.

  1. 1 and 2 only
  2. 1, 2 and 3 only
  3. 2, 3 and 4 only
  4. 1, 2, 3 and 4
Show answer

Answer: B. 1, 2 and 3 only

The line runs from Roha in Maharashtra through Goa to Thokur near Mangaluru in Karnataka. Kerala is a partner in the corporation, but the Konkan line itself ends in Karnataka, so options containing 4 are wrong, and '1 and 2 only' leaves out Karnataka.

Q6. Match List I (dedicated freight corridor) with List II (end points):
List I
A. Eastern dedicated freight corridor
B. Western dedicated freight corridor
List II
1. Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port
2. Sahnewal (Ludhiana) to Sonnagar
Select the correct answer using the code given below.

  1. A-1, B-2
  2. A-2, B-1
  3. A-1, B-1
  4. A-2, B-2
Show answer

Answer: B. A-2, B-1

The Eastern corridor runs Sahnewal–Sonnagar through the Ganga plain and the Western corridor runs Dadri–JNPT to the western ports. The first option swaps them, and the last two give both corridors the same end points, which cannot be right.

Q7. Which of the following are inscribed as part of the 'Mountain Railways of India' World Heritage site?
1. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
2. Nilgiri Mountain Railway
3. Kalka–Shimla Railway
4. Matheran Light Railway
Select the correct answer using the code given below.

  1. 1 and 2 only
  2. 1, 2 and 3 only
  3. 2, 3 and 4 only
  4. 1, 2, 3 and 4
Show answer

Answer: B. 1, 2 and 3 only

The site covers Darjeeling (1999), Nilgiri (2005) and Kalka–Shimla (2008). Matheran is not part of it, so options containing 4 are wrong, and '1 and 2 only' leaves out Kalka–Shimla.

Q8. Consider the following statements about the Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail project:
1. It uses Japanese Shinkansen technology.
2. It runs along the Eastern dedicated freight corridor.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. 1 only
  2. 2 only
  3. Both 1 and 2
  4. Neither 1 nor 2
Show answer

Answer: A. 1 only

Statement 1 is correct: the line of about 508 km is built with Shinkansen technology and a Japanese loan. Statement 2 is wrong: it is a separate passenger line in the west, while the Eastern DFC is a goods line from Sahnewal to Sonnagar. So 2 only, both and neither are wrong.

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