National Highways Authority of India
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was set up in 1995. It is responsible for
development, maintenance and management of national highways entrusted to it and for matters
related or incidental there to.
National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation
The NHIDCL is a fully owned company of the Ministry that exclusively carries out the task
of construction/ up-grading/widening of national highways in parts of the country which share
international boundaries with neighbouring countries in order to promote regional connectively
with neighbouring countries on a sustainable basis.
Indian Academy of Highway Engineers
Indian Academy of Highway Engineers (IAHE) is a registered society under the
administrative control of the Ministry. It is a collaborative body of both central and state
governments and was set up in 1983 with the objective of fulfilling the long felt need for training
of highway engineers in the country, both at the entry level and during the service period.
Major Initiatives
National highways constitute just two per cent of the country’s road network but carry 40
per cent of the traffic load. The government is working hard to augment this infrastructure both
in terms of length and quality. There are plans to expand the network of national highways so
that all parts of the country have an easy access to it. The North East Region, backward and
interior areas, border connectivity roads, coastal roads and economically important routes are
being given special attention in terms of building road connectivity. The Ministry has eased
several norms and polices for aqcuiring land, felling tree, risk balancing, reviving old projects,
etc.
National Registry of Vehicle and License Records
In order to usher in transformational improvements in this sector, the Ministry has put in
place several policies for citizens. Transport Mission Mode Project has successfully automated
RTO operations, set up a consolidated transport database. Along with it, a host of citizen and
trade centric applications have also been implemented. The salient aspects of this Mission Mode
Project are two flagship applications - Vahan and Sarathi. While Vahan consolidates vehicle
registration, taxation, permit, fitness and associated services across the country, Sarathi looks
after the driving license, learner licence, driving schools and related activities. This has been
implemented in more than 1,000 RTOs across 13 states/UTs with state-specific rules, tax
structure, etc.
The database is integrated with Aadhaar for biometric authentication and eKYC, integration
with digilocker. This allows use of virtual documents like driving license, registration
certificates, permits, etc., as authorized soft copy.
Road Safety
The Government has approved a National Road Safety Policy so as to minimise road
accidents. It outlines various measures such as promoting awareness, establishing road safety
information data base, identification and rectification of road accident black spots , improving