Introduction – Highways
There
are several kinds of roads in the world constructed by central & state
governments in urban & rural areas, such as
1.
National Highway (NH),
2.
State highway (SH),
3.
MDR (major district road),
4.
ODR (other District road)
5.
village road (VR).
Generally,
National Highway constructed by the Central Government of consists of
- 2 Lane,
- 3 Lane,
- 4 lane a
- 6 Lane Road.
State
highway, MDR, ODR & village road constructed by State Government consist
of
- single lane,
- 2 Lane,
- 3 Lane
- 4 lane road.
In
India, as per Indian Road Congress (IRC), width or right of way (RoW) of
national highway in India is varies between 30m to 75m wide. It
is about
- 30m wide for 2 lane NH,
- 45m wide for 4 lane NH,
- 60m wide for 6 lane NH
- 75m wide for 8 lane NH
which
includes the width of the roadway + other necessities + future
extension.
VEHICLE WIDTH
The
maximum permissible width of a vehicle is 2.44m &
desirable side clearance for single Lane traffic is 0.68m at
both sides to allow crossing & overtaking, so this requires a minimum of
lane width of 3.75m for single Lane traffic.
Road carriageway width in India as per IRC
In
India, as per rules and guidelines of the Indian Road Congress (IRC),
the ideal & standard width of carriageway of road or highway for single
Lane traffic should be 3.75m wide for NH, SH, MDR and ODRs, for village road it
is kept around 3 metres wide and for 2 lane pavement or road carriageway width
shall be 7.5m wide with raised kerbs or 7m without kerbs. It is kept around
3.5m for multi-lane and 5.5m wide for intermediate carriage.
IRC specification for carriageway width
- Single lane – 3.75m wide
- 2 lane without kerb – 7m wide
- 2 lanes with raised kerb – 7.5m wide
- multi-lane – 3.5m wide
- intermediate carriage – 5.5m wide
