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The road network in India can be broadly classified into five broad categories: (1) Expressways (2) National Highways (NHs) (3) State Highways (SHs) (4) Other Roads and (5) Rural Roads. National Highways comprise less than 2 per cent of the road network, but carry 40 percent of the road-based traffic. State Highways (SHs) and Major District Roads (MDRs) constitute the secondary system of road transportation in the country. The State Highways connect National Highways, district headquarters, important towns, tourist locations and minor ports.
About 61% of the total road length in India is accounted for by rural roads. The aggregate length of roads, which was 0.4 million km in 1950-51 has increased more than 10 fold to 4.24 million km by 2009-10.
The development of National Highways is the responsibility of the Government of India, which has launched major initiatives to upgrade and strengthen National Highways through various phases of National Highways Development Project (NHDP). In addition, a large number of state governments have also launched ambitious programmes of upgrading State Highways
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