First Twenty Year Road Plan for India Known as Nagpur Road Plan

• First 20-year road plan is known as the Nagpur road plan (1943-1963).

• The second twenty-year road plan is known as the Bombay road plan (1961-1981).

• The third road plan is known as the Lucknow road plan (1981-2001).

A chief engineer conference was held at Nagpur in 1943 for finalizing the first twenty-year road development plan for India known as Nagpur plan for the period 1943-63.

Features of Nagpur Road Plan

The various salient features of Nagpur Road Plan include:

• These roads have a Star and Grid pattern.
• There is a development allowance of 15% reserved for roads.
• The responsibility for the maintenance and construction of National Highways was vested in the Central government.
• It aimed at constructing a surfaced and unsurfaced-road network of 2 lakh km.
• The road density was fixed at 16 km length per km2 area.

Nagpur Road Plan Classification

In Nagpur road classification, all roads were classified into five categories as National Highways, State Highways, Major District Roads, Other District Roads, and Village Roads.

1) National Highways

• They are main highways running through the length and breadth of India, connecting major ports, foreign highways, capitals of large states, and large industrial and tourist centers, including roads required for strategic movements.
• It was recommended by the Jayakar committee(1927) that the National highways should be the frame on which the entire road communication should be based.
• All the national highways are assigned their respective numbers.
• They are constructed and maintained by CPWD.
• The total length of the National highway in the country is 58112 Km, which constitutes about 2% of the total road networks of India and carries 40% of total traffic.

2) State highways

• These roads in a state connect the national highways of states in the vicinity. These also connect the district headquarters and important towns and cities in the state.
• These roads can be considered to be the main arteries connecting the District roads.
• Length of State Highways in India is 137119 Km.

3) Major district roads

• These are roads within a district. These serve areas of markets and connect them with each other while also connecting them with the major highways. 
• India has a total of 470000 km of MDR.

4) Other district roads

• These are roads that serve the rural areas having significant prospects of production. These roads provide the rural areas with access to market centers and important roads like Major District Roads or State Highways. 
• These are also used for accessing Tehsil headquarters, block development headquarters, railway stations, etc.

5) Village roads

• These roads connect villages or village groups with each other. These also connect the villages to the nearest road that is of a higher hierarchy, like Other District Roads or Major District Roads.
• India has 2650000 km of (ODR+VR).

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