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-   -   National highway numbers to change, stretches to be longer (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/75727-national-highway-numbers-change-stretches-longer.html)

By the end of this month, all National Highways (NH) across India will be renumbered, which the government claims will more scientific than now. So, the popular NH-8 connecting Delhi and Mumbai will be renumbered as NH-48 and similarly, the Kolkata-Delhi highway, which is presently NH-2, will become NH-19. Moreover, these primary corridors will also be longer.

Sources in the road, transport and highways ministry said the final notification could happen any time and that the renumbering has already been vetted by the law ministry. "We have already circulated the details to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the state governments. So, they are in the know of this. Though it will take a couple of years for people to get accustomed to the new numbers, in the long run this will prove as a big help, more so when we are adding more stretches to the NH network,'' an official said.

As per the detailed report, highways starting from north to south will be in even numbers and those running in the east-west direction will be in odd numbers. For example, the East-West corridor starting from Silchar in Assam and terminating in Porbandar in Gujarat will be renamed as NH-27 and the North-South corridor starting from Srinagar and terminating in Kanyakumari will be renumbered NH-44.

Officials said that the primary NHs running along the north-south and east-west directions will be predominantly double digit for better identification by commuters. In case of NHs with even numbers, the number will increase from east to west and similarly in case of the odd number NHs, the numbers will increase from north to south.

"The present numbering is very irrational. You have NH-10 running parallel to NH-1 and NH-58 running parallel to NH-24. The scientific numbering is more important considering the fact that now people are covering over 250 km in their cars, which was not the case earlier. We expect this to cross the 1,000 km mark. So, rational numbering will come in handy for commuters at large,'' said an official.

However, the secondary routes will be in three digits — more than 100.
Sources said that though the renumbering is complicated and will take some time for people to get accustomed to, this has been done considering the increasing length of NHs. In fact, the NH network has increased from 21,378 km in 1947 to 70,934 km. Officials said this will cross one lakh km by 2021.

Source - National highway numbers to change, stretches to be longer - India - The Times of India

Thanks for sharing this with us @aargee.

However I did not get the quoted part. Longer ?
If distance between point A to B is 100 kms, what is
to be longer than that ?stupid:

EDIT: Got it! It seems NHs will be extended to other regions as well. Sheesh!

Finally its getting better.
But what took our government so long to copy what other countries have done? Shouldn't this have gone into the plan in the first place? Are we going worse even in copycat stuff? :Frustrati

This is a good move by Government. Let's not be too critical. Better late than never :thumbs up.

Can't figure out how renumbering helps! There are more substantial things to be done - can you imagine the financial impact of this renumbering?

Indeed it will be a huge financial impact. Need to change huge existing stationeries of offices for address change including people's visiting cards. Means more trees will disappear from jungle

+1, How is renumbering going to help? This is just a big waste of tax payer money. Imagine the cost of repainting each and every milestone/boards on every national highway in India:eek:. Again, these will have to be replaced in maps, leading to more confusion. Else, we may have to prepare chart conting the old NH numbers to their new ones, just like auto drivers do to show the old fare and revised farelol:

Extending the existing highways are definitely welcome.

MMI, Satnav people have more work to do. Guess, I'll postpone my plan to buy navigator till all the renaming is done and dusted.
Which map will we depend on? Will it become like Chennai house addresses (which used to feature both old number and new number)?
Route queries is going to be hilarious and confusing I guess!
HVK sir, expect more PMs in your box when the route numbers are changed!

I think, HVK should start a paid consultancy service now.

BTW, in case you did not know, Wikipedia has excellent pages on each NH.
List of National Highways in India by highway number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes I have checked the NH pages on Wiki and they are surprisingly good.

As for the renumbering? Other countries have been using such or similar systems for ages, why the need now for us to follow the same convention?
Repainting sign-boards/milestones will cause a lot of confusion as the work will take a long time to complete as is the norm in India.

This is a big financial burden, when better roads should be a priority.But on the other side, when ever you take up such a project there will always be the same criticism. I think this will good as it will reduce our dependency on tribal knowledge when it comes to finding the route.

Even though this is a good initiative, it is also like most Govt projects where they put the cart before the horse. The priority should be to improve the roads first before renumbering them. I hope NHAI gets its act together and finish the E-W & N-S Corridors fast before the new numbering takes place.

Either the govt itself is getting confused on the routes & hence they decided to adopt a simpler model :Shockked:, OR some top guy would've come to know about the US highway numbering system only a week back & decided to adopt it here as a new practice lol:

so a delhi mumbai highway is east to west or north to south? :confused: