The road transport and highways ministry will identify 10,000 km roads running through different states to be upgraded to NHs. This will mean a better maintenance and upgrade of the highways as once they are declared NH, the resources for its upkeep shifts to the centre from the respective states.

On June 15, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Planning Commission deputy chairman had also written to CP Joshi, road transport minister to finalise the list of 10,000 km of state highways to be upgraded to NH by the end of August.

At present, while India has the second largest road network of 3.3 million km, the National Highways constitute just 70,548 km, but it carries about 40% of the total road traffic.