The aggregate length of roads, which was 0.4 million kms in 1950-51, has increased eight-fold to 3.32 million kms in 1995-96 but the number of goods vehicle fleet has increased 22-fold from 0.82 lakh to 17.85 lakh in the corresponding period. The national highway network, which carries about 40% of the road traffic, is just a little over 1% of the road network.

NHs are less than 2% of the entire network but carry about 40% of the country's traffic. The total road kilometerage has not been growing adequately to meet the demand for speedy and efficient transportation of material traffic.