Expressways are the highest class of roads in India. As of July 2023, India has a total length of 4,901 km (3,045 mi) of expressways. These are controlled-access highways where entrance and exits are controlled by the use of cloverleaf or trumpet or grade separated interchanges that are incorporated into the design of the expressway and designed for maximum speed of 120 km/h, whereas National highways are flyover access or tolled, where entrance and exit is through the side of the flyover, at each intersection of highway with road, flyovers are provided to bypass the city/town/village traffic and these highways are designed for speed of 100 km/h.
Some roads are not access-controlled expressways, but are still named as expressways, such as the Biju Expressway, these are actually state highways which are not declared by central government as an Expressway, hence not an Expressway or National Highway. Mumbai–Pune Expressway is the first 6-lane operational expressway in India started in 2002. Expressways follow standards set by Indian Roads Congress and Bureau of Indian Standards.
Currently, the longest expressway in India is the partially-opened Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway (Phase-II) at 600 km (370 mi), which was opened in 2022 and (Phase-II) was inaugurated in May 2023,[1] and the widest expressway is the Delhi – Dasna (UP border) section of the Delhi–Meerut Expressway with 14 lanes, which was opened in 2021.
As of April 2021, eight expressways have been declared as National Expressway (NE) by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
- Operational (NE-1 to NE-3)
- Under construction (NE-4 to NE-10)
Designation | Expressway | Operational (km) | Total Length (km) | Date declared as NE | Date of completion |
NE 1 | Ahmedabad–Vadodara
Expressway | 93 | 93 | 13 Mar 1986 | 16 August 2004 |
NE 2 | Eastern
Peripheral Expressway (KGP) | 135 | 135 | 30 Mar 2006 | 27 May 2018 |
NE 3 | Delhi–Meerut
Expressway | 96 | 96 | 18 Jun 2020 | 1 April 2021 |
NE 4 | Vadodara–Mumbai section
of Delhi–Mumbai Expressway | 0 | 1380 | 10 Jan 2020 | March 2023 |
NE 5 | Delhi–Nakodar–Gurdaspur section
of Delhi–Amritsar–Katra Expressway | 0 | 398 | 25 Jun 2020 | October 2023 |
NE 5A | Nakodar–Amritsar section
of Delhi–Amritsar–Katra Expressway | 0 | 99 | 17 Sep 2020 | October 2023 |
NE 6 | Lucknow–Kanpur
Expressway | 0 | 62 | 15 Dec 2020 | October 2023 |
NE 7 | Bangalore–Chennai
Expressway | 0 | 258 | 1 Jan 2021 | March 2024 |
NE 8 | Varanasi–Kolkata
Expressway | 0 | 652 | 1 Jan 2023 | December 2026 |
NE 9 | Kharagpur–Morgram section
of Kharagpur–Siliguri Economic Corridor | 0 | 230 | 1 Jan 2023 | 25 December 2026 |
NE 10 | Katihar-Kishanganj-Siliguri-Guwahati Expressway | 0 | 676 | 1 Jan 2023 | 25 December 2026 |
Total | 324 | 4080 |
Expressways summary by state
List of operational expressways by state, as of March 2023:-
|
States |
Length (km/mi) |
Number of Expressways |
|
Uttar Pradesh |
1,396 km (867 mi) |
8 |
|
Maharashtra |
765.3 km (475.5 mi) |
6 |
|
Rajasthan |
757 km (470 mi) |
3 |
|
Haryana |
609 km (378 mi) |
7 |
|
Chhattisgarh |
191 km (119 mi) |
2 |
|
Karnataka |
171 km (106 mi) |
5 |
|
Telangana |
169.6 km (105.4 mi) |
2 |
|
Tamil Nadu |
94.8 km (58.9 mi) |
2 |
|
Gujarat |
93.1 km (57.8 mi) |
1 |
|
Jharkhand |
85 km (53 mi) |
1 |
|
Bihar |
33 km (21 mi) |
2 |
|
West Bengal |
30.17 km (18.75 mi) |
2 |
|
Delhi |
26.6 km (16.5 mi) |
4 |
|
Total |
4,719km (2932)mi |
47 |
Total Operational Expressways By Type
|
S.No. |
Type |
Length (km/mi) |
|
1 |
National
Expressways |
570 km
(350 mi) |
|
2 |
State Expressways |
3,901 km
(2,424 mi) |
|
3 |
By-pass
Expressways |
675.8 km
(419.9 mi) |
|
Total |
4,900 km
(3,000 mi) |
