The 5,846 km Golden Quadrilateral Stood Complete by December 2012, and India's National Highways Grew From 91,287 km in 2014 to 146,572 km by February 2026

The Golden Quadrilateral is a ring of four- and six-lane national highway, 5,846 km long, joining Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The Economic Survey 2012-13, drawing on Ministry of Road Transport and Highways data, lists all 5,846 km as completed as of December 2012. The whole national highway network was 91,287 km in March 2014 and stood at 146,572 km in the minister’s written reply to the Rajya Sabha, released by the Press Information Bureau on 4 February 2026.

Four cities, one project, and a bill in 1999 prices

The Golden Quadrilateral, usually shortened to GQ, was Phase I of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP). The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), a statutory body under the road ministry, ran it. The Economic Survey 2002-03 laid out the plan: about 5,846 km of GQ, plus about 7,300 km of North-South and East-West corridors, one running from Srinagar to Kanyakumari and the other from Silchar to Porbandar. The whole project was priced at Rs 54,000 crore at 1999 prices, of which Rs 30,300 crore was for the GQ.

Sources date the start differently. The 2001-02 survey says NHDP “was launched three years ago”. The 2003-04 survey says that if 1998-99 is treated as the first year of the project, NHAI’s capital spending had reached 0.33 per cent of GDP by year six. The 2002-03 survey says Phase I itself commenced in December 2000. The Government of India’s Indian Economic Service gives 1998 for the launch of the programme.

The money came from a fuel cess and from tolls. The 2001-02 survey records a cess of Rs 1 per litre on petrol and diesel, backed by the Central Road Fund Act passed in December 2000. The 2002-03 survey puts the Phase I funding at 55.6 per cent cess and market borrowing, 26 per cent external assistance, 6.3 per cent NHAI special-purpose companies, and 12 per cent annuity and toll payments. The 2007-08 survey adds loans from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

A state-built long road had a precedent. Sher Shah Suri’s road, covered in our article on him, ran from Sonargaon in Bengal to Lahore and then Multan, according to Banglapedia, and the British extended it to Peshawar and named it the Grand Trunk Road. The GQ was a different design: a ring joining four metros, paid for by a fuel cess and tolls.

From 1,020 km to 5,846 km

The Economic Survey of 2001-02 counted 1,020 km of the GQ already four-laned and 3,761 km under implementation, with contracts being awarded for another 1,170 km. It expected the GQ to be finished by 2003. By 31 March 2004, according to the 2003-04 survey, 3,200 km of NHDP in all was complete, most of it on the GQ, and the GQ was expected to be substantially complete by December 2004.

The 2007-08 survey gives the next marker: 5,629 km of the 5,846 km, or 96 per cent, complete as of 30 November 2007. It names what slowed the work: delays in land acquisition and removal of structures, shifting of utilities, law and order problems in some states, and poor performance of some contractors. The survey said the effect on the economy of the 96 per cent already done was visible.

The ministry’s own tables then close the count. In the Economic Survey 2011-12, the GQ shows 5,831 km completed in four or six lanes as of December 2011, with 15 km under implementation. In the 2012-13 survey, the December 2012 row shows 5,846 km completed and none under implementation on the GQ. Each survey names the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways as the source.

One study looked at what the finished road did for factories. Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover Goswami and William Kerr, in a November 2012 NBER working paper, compared districts by distance from the highway. They found that districts up to 10 km from the GQ, outside the big nodal cities, had higher rates of new plants and gains in plant productivity, while districts 10 to 50 km away did not. The North-South and East-West corridor, whose upgrades were planned alongside but delayed, showed no comparable effect in their data.

Highway length before and after 2014

Economic Survey 2001-02 put national highways at about 58,112 km, and the 2007-08 survey at 66,754 km. The 4 February 2026 reply gives 91,287 km for March 2014 and 146,572 km now. In between, a 2 April 2021 release gives 137,625 km as of 20 March 2021. The Year End Review of 30 December 2025 had 146,560 km, and the 14 June 2026 release says the network grew to over 146,572 km in 2025-26. The ministry calls that a rise of about 61 per cent on 2014.

The share of wide road has grown faster than the total. The 2007-08 survey put four-lane or wider roads at 13 per cent of national highway length, and the 2012-13 survey at 25 per cent. The ministry counts 4-lane-and-above highway, expressways included, at 18,371 km in 2014 and 48,568 km in the February 2026 reply, a rise of 2.6 times. Roads with fewer than two lanes fell from 30 per cent of the network in 2014 to 9 per cent. The Year End Review of December 2025 gave 43,512 km for the 4-lane-and-above figure, and neither release explains the difference. The releases also do not say how much of the growth in length is new road and how much is existing road brought into the national highway network.

The February 2026 reply cites an Indian Institute of Management Bangalore study of highway projects from 2014 to 2022. As the ministry summarises it, transport time between factories and their suppliers fell 9.19 per cent in districts that received highway projects, compared with similar districts that did not, and each rupee spent on highways was linked to a Rs 3.2 rise in GDP. These are the ministry’s summary figures, not the study’s text.

Kilometres built per day, year by year

The ministry’s Year End Review 2025 carries a year-by-year table of national highway construction. In 2014-15 it shows 4,410 km built, or 12.1 km a day. The next four years read 6,061 km (16.6 a day), 8,231 km (22.6), 9,829 km (26.9) and 10,855 km (29.7 in 2018-19). The peak year is 2020-21, with 13,327 km and 36.5 km a day. Later years in the table are 12,349 km in 2023-24 (33.83 a day) and 10,660 km in 2024-25 (29.21 a day).

The 14 June 2026 release gives 11.6 km a day for 2013-14 and nearly 34 km a day in 2025, without saying whether 2025 means the calendar year or a financial year. A 2 April 2021 release called 2020-21 a record at 37 km a day, against 36.5 in the later table. For the current year the table is partial: 4,612 km, at 17.06 km a day, through November 2025. The 4 February 2026 reply says 57,125 km of national highway was built in the last five years.

Bharatmala took in the unfinished NHDP work

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved Phase I of Bharatmala Pariyojana in October 2017. The 14 June 2026 release describes 34,800 km of national highway corridors at an outlay of Rs 5.35 lakh crore. It reports that as of March 2026 projects covering 26,425 km had been awarded and 22,590 km constructed. The Comptroller and Auditor General’s audit adds that the 34,800 km includes about 10,000 km of residual NHDP work, so Bharatmala carried the earlier programme forward. The Year End Review’s table for 30 November 2025 shows 6,758 km of “balance road works under NHDP”, of which 5,633 km was complete, and an expressway component of 2,422 km with 1,994 km complete.

The CAG audit, Report No. 19 of 2023, was tabled on 10 August 2023. It records the construction pace under Bharatmala rising from 1.04 km a day in 2018-19 to 12.37 km a day in 2022-23. As of 31 March 2023 it counted 26,316 km awarded, 75.62 per cent of the approved length, and 13,499 km completed, 38.79 per cent. The auditors also found the sanctioned civil cost at Rs 23.89 crore per km against the Rs 13.98 crore approved, which they attributed to changes in scope and richer specifications, and no multimodal logistics park developed by March 2023. The Year End Review says a network of 35 such parks is planned, at about Rs 46,000 crore. The other long-distance freight carrier is covered in our piece on railway electrification.

Expressways: 93 km in 2014, 3,052 km in 2026

The February 2026 reply puts operational access-controlled expressways, which allow entry and exit only at designated points, at 3,052 km, up from 93 km in 2014. The idea predates 2014. The 2007-08 survey records government approval of 1,000 km of fully access-controlled expressways under NHDP Phase VI.

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is planned at about 1,386 km and about Rs 1 lakh crore, according to the June 2026 release. Its first completed section, the 246 km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot stretch, was dedicated on 12 February 2023 at a cost of more than Rs 12,150 crore, and the Press Information Bureau said it would cut Delhi to Jaipur from five hours to about three and a half. The 87 km Vadodara-Bharuch section followed on 22 February 2024. Two Gujarat sections, 36 km and 27.5 km, were inaugurated on 5 June 2026.

Other corridors carry dates and times from the same release. The 118 km Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway opened on 12 March 2023 and cut the trip from nearly three hours to about 75 minutes. The 213 km Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor was inaugurated on 14 April 2026 at Rs 12,000 crore, with the trip down from over six hours to about two and a half. It includes a 12 km elevated wildlife corridor near Rajaji National Park. The February 2026 reply sets targets of 18,000 km of operational expressways by 2028-29 and 26,000 km awarded by 2032-33.

FASTag and the toll plazas

The 2012-13 Economic Survey recorded a government decision to introduce electronic toll collection based on passive radio-frequency identification. On the midnight of 15 and 16 February 2021, every lane of every fee plaza on a national highway became a FASTag lane, according to the Year End Review. It says more than 11.73 crore FASTags had been issued through November 2025. For 2025-26 up to November, the daily average was about Rs 184 crore collected and about 120 lakh electronic transactions at national highway fee plazas.

The same table tracks the wider tolling system. Tolling length was 26,067 km in 2018-19 and 52,748 km in 2024-25. User fee collected at fee plazas rose from Rs 25,164.50 crore to Rs 61,408.15 crore over those years, and Rs 44,238.96 crore had been collected by November 2025 in 2025-26.

The Year End Review also lists a FASTag-based Annual Pass for non-commercial vehicles, at Rs 3,000 for 200 fee-plaza crossings. By November 2025 the ministry had sold 36.13 lakh passes and collected Rs 1,084 crore. It has decided to add barrier-free tolling with number-plate cameras on selected stretches.