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Data Intelligence Report

India’s Roads:
Highways & Rural Connectivity

State-wise length of national highways, State highways, the total road network and rural roads built under PMGSY, from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency.

Sources: MoRTH; NRIDA, Ministry of Rural Development
Measure
Year
Length
–
Largest network
–
Growth
–
Fastest-growing State
–
Added in the year
–
All-India Network
Length (bars, left axis) and kilometres added each year (line, right axis)
Trend
The selected year is highlighted.
Which Network Grew Fastest?
All-India length, first year of each series = 100
Index
National, State highways and all roads start in 2005; PMGSY starts in 2013-14 (shown as 2014).
Map
Each square is a State or UT, placed roughly where it sits. Click a square to open its profile.
Tile map
Schematic tile map, not a boundary map. Values are kilometres (thousand km shown as k). Colour scale is compressed (square root) so smaller networks stay visible. Raw length favours large States; it is not road density.
Ranking
Length by State, km
Ranking
Growth by State
Multiple of the first year
Growth
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are combined so that the 2014 split does not distort growth. Sudden jumps often reflect roads being reclassified (e.g. State roads declared national highways), not new construction.
The Road Hierarchy, 2019
National and State highways as % of each State’s total road length
Mix
2019 is the latest year with all three series. The remainder of each network is district, rural, urban and project roads. Nationally, national highways are 2.4% of road length.
State Profile
All four road series for one State or UT
Profile
State Comparison Table
Kilometres · latest year of each series · click a heading to sort · search by name
Full Dataset
NH = national highways (2024 as at end-December). SH = State highways (2020). PMGSY = rural roads built, cumulative to 2024-25. n/a = not reported.
Key Findings
🛣️

National highways have more than doubled

The network grew from 65,569 km in 2005 to 146,195 km by December 2024, with 54,908 km (60%) added since 2014. Maharashtra now has the longest, at 18,462 km.

🚜

Rural road building is slowing

PMGSY roads built reached 777,463 km by 2024-25, double the 2013-14 total. Annual additions peaked at about 48,700 km in 2016-18 but fell to 16,887 km in 2024-25. Madhya Pradesh leads, with 89,781 km.

🔀

Upgrades, not only new roads

Maharashtra’s national highways jumped from 7,435 to 16,239 km in a single year (2017). Over the same period, State highways shrank in Punjab (−41%) and Haryana (−37%), consistent with roads moving up the hierarchy.

🗺️

The wider network grew 84%

Total road length rose from 29.6 lakh km in 2005 to 54.6 lakh km in 2020. Jammu & Kashmir (5.4×) and Jharkhand (4.7×) expanded most. Some year-to-year swings in this series reflect changes in how roads are classified.

Sources: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India (Tables 144, 146, 147: national highways, total roads and State highways, as at end-March); National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, Ministry of Rural Development (Table 150: roads constructed under PMGSY, including PMGSY-I, II, III and RCPLWEA). Notes: National highway data for 2020 are not available, and 2022–2024 are as at end-December. Andhra Pradesh figures up to 2013-14 include Telangana. State highway figures for Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir in 2019 are as on 31 March 2018; from 2016 the State highway figures add up to less than the All-India total (by up to 13,565 km), so the published All-India figure is used. National highways for Jammu & Kashmir include Ladakh. The PMGSY All-India figure is the sum of States.
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