In news– India entered the Guinness World Records for constructing the longest piece of asphalt/bituminous concrete road (along NH-53) which was laid continuously.
About the new highway-
- The new road was constructed in a single lane on the NH-53 section between Amravati and Akola in Maharashtra.
- The 75-kilometre road was built in a record time of 105 hours and 33 minutes and the single lane road is estimated to be equivalent to 35 km of two-lane paved shoulder road.
- It was constructed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Rajpath Infracon Pvt Ltd.
- It connects major cities like Kolkata, Raipur, Nagpur, Akola, Dhule, and Surat. It passes through a mineral-rich region of our country.
The National highways in India-
- They are a network of trunk roads owned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
- It is constructed and managed by the Central Public Works Department, the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), and the public works departments (PWD) of state governments.
- Currently, the longest National Highway in India is National Highway 44 at 3,508 km.
- The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the NHIDCL are the nodal agencies responsible for building, upgrading, and maintaining most of the National Highways network.
- The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) is a major effort to expand and upgrade the network of highways.
- NHAI often uses a public–private partnership model for highway maintenance, and toll-collection.
- NHIDCL uses the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) model to build, develop and maintain strategic roads in International borders of the country.
- In India, National Highways are at-grade roads, whereas Expressways are controlled-access highways where entrance and exit is controlled by the use ramps that are incorporated into the design of the expressway.
- India has 151,019 km (93,839 mi) of National Highways as of March 2021.
Source: The Indian Express
