Road Network in Kerala

National Highways in Kerala                  

                  The State has a total road length of 2,30,934.18km. This includes classified and non-classified roads as stipulated by Indian Road Congress. Road density in Kerala is 548km per 100 sq. km, which is roughly three times the national average. The length of road per lakh population is 993.54 km and almost 90 per cent of the road network is single lane. The National Highways, considered to be the primary network, carries 40 per cent of the total traffic, and the State Highways and Major District Roads (MDRs)-the secondary road network – carries another 40 per cent of the road traffic. Thus around 12 per cent of the road network handles almost 80 per cent of the traffic in the State.

                   There are 11 National Highways in the State having a total length of 1,781.36 km. Out of this, the NH Wing of State PWD upkeeps 548km and the remaining 1,233.36km is maintained by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) under Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The District-wise status of roads maintained by PWD (NH) wing are given here  and the length of National Highways in the State are provided below:

                   The major roads in the State are developed and maintained by the State Public Works Department. The total length of roads maintained by Public Works Department (PWD)-Roads and Bridges (R&B) is 29,522.15km in 2021-22, which comprises 4,127.80km (13.98 per cent) State Highways and 25,394.32km (86.01 per cent) Major District Roads (MDRs).Out of the total length of the State Highways, 898.74km is four lanes, 3,193.50km is two lanes and remaining 35.75km is single lane roads. The Major District Roads covers 25,394.32km of roads with 52.51km four lane. The Local Self Government Department (LSGD) own and operates 83.19 per cent of the total road network in the State whereas the PWD (R&B) maintains 12.78 per cent of roads. The PWD (NH) wing upkeeps 0.23 per cent of the total length of road in the State and the remaining 3.8 per cent of roads are called other roads which are maintained by Railways, Irrigation, KSEB, Forest and Dewasom departments.

                  Kottayam District tops in the share of PWD (R&B) maintained roads with 3,310.44km (11.21 per cent) in length. Wayanad District has got the lowest share of 856.95km (2.90 per cent). Details of District-wise and category-wise length of roads maintained by PWD (R&B) are given below:

 

                  The total length of roads maintained by different local bodies in 2021-22 is 1,92,115km, of which 1,66,921km (86.88 per cent) is maintained by District and Grama Panchayats is 16,722km (8.70 per cent) by Municipalities and 8,472km (4.40 per cent) is maintained by the corporations.

Road Network in Kerala