‘There are no shortcuts to somewhere worth going,’ they say, and if the longer routes are as spectacular as these National Highways in India, you won’t want to take those shortcuts. These road networks link India’s major cities. National Highways that link the North, South, East, and West parts of India have become the cornerstone of the road network in today’s scenario.
All credit goes to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) or Central Public Works Department (CPWD), which manages the road network from construction to maintenance. National Highways play a critical role in the growth of a country’s infrastructure. There are several national highways in India. In this article, we will look at the longest national highways in India.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is an agency of the Government of India. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was established in 1988 by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Act, 1988, Section 16 of Parliament.
The total length of National Highways in India has risen from approximately 91,287 km in 2014 to approximately 142,126 km in 2019, with a total length of 151,019 km (93,839 mi) as of March 2021. Mr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, an IAS officer, is the new chairman of the NHAI. He has been the Chairman of the NHAI since October 2019.
Longest Highway In India
NH 44 is India’s longest national highway. Previously, National Highway 44 (NH 44) was known as National Highway 7. The North-South Corridor of the NHDP is covered by NH 44, which is 3,745 kilometers long. It begins in the North with Srinagar and ends in the South with Kanyakumari. The NH 44 Highway was created by combining seven major national highways with old numbers: NH 1A, NH 1, NH 2, NH 3, NH 75, NH 26, and NH 7.
The main cities through which the highway NH 44 passes beginning from the north are enlisted here:
- Srinagar
- Anantnag
- Domel
- Jammu
- Pathankot
- Jalandhar
- Ludhiana
- Ambala
- Kurukshetra
- Panipat
- Sonipat
- Delhi
- Faridabad
- Mathura
- Agra
- Gwalior
- Jhansi
- Sagar
- Lakhnadon
- Seoni
- Nagpur
- Adilabad
- Nizamabad
- Kamareddy
- Hyderabad
- Kurnool
- Anantapur
- Bengaluru
- Salem
- Namakkal
- Karur
- Dindigul
- Madurai
- Tirunelveli
- Kanyakumari
List of Top 11 Longest Highways In India
As we know that there are over 200 national highways in India. Here are the top 11 national highways in India, the cities that they connect to, and their distance.
| S. No | National Highway | Distance (in km) | Route |
| 1 | NH 44 (old NH 7) | 3,745 | Srinagar to Kanyakumari |
| 2 | NH 27 | 3,507 | Porbandar in Gujarat to Silchar in Assam |
| 3 | NH 48 (old NH 8) | 2,807 | Delhi to Chennai |
| 4 | NH 52 | 2,317 | Sangrur, Punjab to Ankola, Karnataka |
| 5 | NH 30 (Old NH 221) | 2,040 | Sitarganj in Uttarakhand to Ibrahimpatnam in Andhra Pradesh. |
| 6 | NH 6 | 1,873 | Jorabat in Meghalaya and terminates at Selling in Mizoram |
| 7 | NH 53 | 1,781 | Hajira in Gujarat and Pradip port in Odisha. |
| 8 | NH 16 (Old NH 5) | 1,711 | East coast of West Bengal to Chennai in Tamil Nadu. |
| 9 | NH 66(Old NH 17) | 1,622 | Panvel and terminates at Kanyakumari |
| 10 | NH 19 (Old NH 20) | 1,435 | Delhi to Kolkata |
| 11 | NH 34 | 1,426 | Gangotri Dham in Uttarakhand to Lakhnadon in Madhya Pradesh |
Important Facts About Longest Highways in India
Here are some details about India’s longest highways. These points are very useful and will help you answer Static General Knowledge Questions in various competitive exams like RBI Grade B, NABARD Grade A, SEBI Grade B, IBPS SO, IBPS PO, SBI Clerk, SBI PO, and other govt exams. So, take a look at this information to get a clear understanding of the details of India’s longest highway.
- India has the second-largest road network in the world after The United States of America
- More than 200 national highways and their cumulative length add up to 151,019 km as of March 2021. The total length of state highways in India adds up to 176,166 km.
- The main highway has a two-digit number, and all of the highways with three digits are functionally branches to the main highway. For example, highway number 144 is a secondary branch of highway number 44. These are further subdivided and denoted with a suffixed alphabet, such as 144A, 244A, and so on.
- National Highways constituted 2.7% of India’s total road network but carried about 40% of road traffic
- National Highway Colors: Yellow and white are the colors of national highways; State highways are green and white; The city highway is black and white
- NH 118 and NH 548 are the two shortest national highways. NH 118 links the cities of Asanbani and Jamshedpur in the state of Jharkhand, covering just about 5 kilometers. The NH 548 runs for around 5 kilometers across Maharashtra.
- The next Shortest Highway is NH 47A, which starts from Kundannoor to Willingdon Island in Kochi, Kerala. It covers a distance of 6 km (3.7 miles) After this the shortest highway is 4C. It is located on NH-4 near Kalamboli. The total length is 7 km. Next is National Highway 1C (Domel – Katra HHighway in Jammu & Kashmir with a total length of 8 km.
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