The National Highways Development Project is a project to upgrade, rehabilitate and widen major highways in India to a higher standard. The project was implemented in 1998 under the leadership of 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 NHAI has invested US$71 billion for this project, as of 2006. The NHDP represents 49,260 km of roads and highways work and construction in order to boost economic development of the country.
The project is composed of the following phases:
Note: 1 crore= 10 million
"Financing of the National Highway Development Programme" (PDF).
The Indian Government has set ambitious plans for upgrading of the National Highways in a phased manner in the years to come. The details are as follows:
National Highways Development Project is being implemented in all phases except phase VI at present. The present phases are improving more than 49,260 km of arterial routes of NH network to international standards. The project-wise details of NHDP all phases is below as of Jan 31, 2017:
(100.00%)
Ph. I & II
Connectivity