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Sharing the list of countries with the largest road networks in the world, business tycoon Anand Mahindra said he was pleasantly surprised to see India in the second spot, ahead of China.
In his latest post on X, Mahindra also sent a message to Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari saying that soon India will overtake the US to become the nation with the largest road network.
“I was happily surprised to see that we are ahead of China. That must be because the western half of China is sparsely inhabited. More interesting is that we’re within striking distance of the U.S.A. I’m sure @nitin_gadkari ji can set a goal to overtake the U.S not too long from today!” he wrote on X.
Also Read: Jammu and Kashmir's remote village to get road connectivity for the first time since independence
In June last year, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the total length of the national highways in the country rose by about 59% in the last nine years. The rapid expansion of national highways has made it the second-largest road network in the world after the US.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Gadkari said: “Total length of National Highways was 91,287 km in 2013-14, which increased to 1,45,240 km in 2022-23, which is a rise of more than 59% during this period."
Till 2022, India's road network covered over 5.89 million kilometres. These roads are classified into several categories including National Highways (NH), State Highways, District Roads, rural roads, village Roads, and other rural roads (ORR). The development of Yamuna Expressway, Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Eastern Peripheral Expressway, etc is tantamount to India's growing investment in road connectivity to facilitate faster and smoother travel between major cities.
However, India still fails to perform well in terms of traffic management in metro cities, ensuring road safety issues, and maintenance concerns. Many remote places in rural India still suffer due to inadequate infrastructure in certain regions and require attention and investment, say experts.
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