Freeway, Highway and Expressway
Highways and Expressways are common terms we use most of the time and also travel across them. They have made road transportation much faster and efficient in India. India's road network is the second largest road network in the world that connects all the major and minor cities, towns and villages. Indian road network consists of Expressways, National Highways, State Highways and other major district and rural roads.
What is a National Highway?
National Highways are the backbone of the road infrastructure that connects every major cities of India whether ports, capital of states etc. They consist of two, four or more lanes built by charcoal (coal tar) and few by cement concrete. That is, in India, National Highways are at grade roads.
This network is owned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. It is constructed and managed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL) and Public Works Department (PWD) of state governments. NH was established by the National Highway Authority of India Act, 1988.
What is Expressway?
Expressways are the highest class roads in India. These are the highways with six to eight lane controlled access road network. Basically, expressways are of high quality consisting of modern features like access ramps, grade separation, lane dividers and elevated section. The expressway is equipped with several smart and intelligent features including a Highway Traffic Management System (HTMS) and Video Incident Detection System (VIDS). For future highways these systems will set a benchmark and are also environment friendly.
Difference between Expressways and Highways
The major difference between a highway and expressway is the access control.
- In expressways, there are no multiple roads, controlled access is there where vehicle can enter through a limited place and no further or other road merges or crosses the expressway anywhere. Due to this the possibility of accidents are also less. In short, they are high speed roads with several facilitates and little access.
- Highway is a generic form given to roadways which connect the important cities, towns etc., consist of multiple roads and usually have four lanes to provide high speed traffic.
Freeway is basically designed for high speed vehicular traffic. For example, Eastern Freeway and Western Freeway reduce traffic congestion in the Mumbai Island city.
