LOS ANALYSIS AND CAPACITY ESTIMATION OF IDENTIFIED ROADS (KEY IJP************094)

• Vikesh Raj,Pardeep

Abstract

Transport plays a very vital role in the development of a country's economy in determining overall productivity, quality of life of citizens, access to goods and services and the pattern for distribution of economic activity. Transportation development is one of the most visible and important investments made by a government. Efficient transportation is very important for the economic growth of a country and road transport is the only mode that is complete itself. In a country of continental size like India where resources and markets are dispersed across long distances, the provision of efficient, low cost, reliable and safe transport infrastructure and services assumes additional significance. Since the economic liberalisation of the 1990s, infrastructure development has progressed rapidly; today transport system in India comprises distinct modes such as rail, road transport, coastal shipping, civil aviation, inland water transport and pipelines. However, India's relatively low GDP per capita has meant that access to transport has not been uniform. Also railways provide an extremely important way of getting around in India, transporting 18 million citizens every 24-hour experience.India has a network of National Highways connecting all the major cities and state capitals, forming the economic backbone of the country. It consists of approximately 1,00,475 km National HighwaysExpressways, 1,48,256 km of State Highways and 49,83,579 km other roads (MORTH, 2015-16). The national highways constitute hardly 2% of the total road length but carry the 40% of total road traffic. State highways constitute about 4% of total road length and they also carry a substantial proportion of total road traffic. National highways play a very important role in promoting economic growth by providing effective connectivity between different parts of the country and an efficient means to transport freight.