The Lucknow Plan is the most ambitious of the three twenty-year plans, and the most modern in outlook. It reclassified India’s roads into three systems, set a target nearly three times the previous one, and — for the first time — asked not just how many kilometres of road there should be, but whether every village could actually reach one.
This post covers the two shortcomings it was written to fix, its features, and its road length formulae.
What Was Wrong With the Earlier Plans
The Lucknow Plan begins by identifying two shortcomings in the Nagpur and Bombay Plans:
- They were not conceived to meet the needs of freight and passenger movement by road.
- They were not part of the total transportation plan of the country.
Understanding Both Criticisms
The first says the earlier plans measured the wrong thing. They counted kilometres of road and density per unit area — supply-side measures. What they never asked was how much freight and how many passengers actually needed to move, and whether the network could carry them. A region can have plenty of road length and still be unable to move its produce to market.
The second is broader still. Roads had been planned in isolation, as though railways, waterways and air transport did not exist. But a country’s transport system is a whole. Deciding road investment without reference to what the railways are carrying leads to duplication in some corridors and gaps in others.
Together these criticisms mark a real change of thinking: from building roads to planning transport.
The New Road Classification
The Lucknow Plan proposed classifying Indian roads into three systems:
| System | Includes |
|---|---|
| (a) Primary system | Expressways National Highways |
| (b) Secondary system | State Highways Major District Roads |
| (c) Tertiary system (Rural Roads) | Other District Roads Village Roads |
What Changed From Nagpur
- Expressways now appear in the classification itself, at the very top of the primary system. In the Bombay Plan they were merely a construction target; here they become a recognised road class.
- The six road types are grouped into three systems rather than listed as four separate classes.
- ODR and Village Roads are together labelled Rural Roads, giving rural connectivity a named category of its own.
The three-tier grouping reflects how the roads actually function — long-distance movement, intermediate distribution, and local access.
The Targets
Road length for the year 2001: 27,00,000 km
Giving a road density of 82 km per 100 sq. km
The Three Plans Side by Side
| Plan | Period | Length Target | Density (km per 100 sq. km) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nagpur | 1943–63 | 2 lakh km | 16 |
| Bombay | 1961–81 | 10 lakh km | 32 |
| Lucknow | 1981–2001 | 27 lakh km | 82 |
The density sequence 16, 32, 82 is one of the most frequently asked facts in this chapter. Note that the first step is a clean doubling, while the second is considerably more than a doubling.
Village Connectivity: The Plan’s Best Idea
This is where the Lucknow Plan does something the earlier plans never attempted.
An all-weather road should connect all villages, or groups of villages, with a population of 500 and above, by 2001.
For villages with population below 500, the road network should be planned so that an all-weather road is available within:
- Less than 3 km in plain areas
- Less than 5 km in hilly terrain
Why This Matters
Two words deserve attention.
“All-weather.” A road that becomes impassable during the monsoon is not a road for the four months when it matters most — when produce needs to reach market and when medical emergencies cannot wait. Specifying all-weather access is a quality requirement, not a quantity one.
“Available within 3 km.” For the smallest villages, the plan does not promise a road to the door. It promises one within a stated walking distance, and it sensibly relaxes that distance in hilly terrain where construction is far costlier. This is realistic engineering rather than an unachievable promise.
Other Features
Expressways
Expressways should be constructed on major traffic corridors to provide speedy travel.
National Highway Grid
National Highways should form a square grid of 100 km × 100 km.
This means no point in the country would be more than about 50 km from a National Highway — a specific geometric commitment, and a clear echo of the Nagpur Plan’s grid pattern idea now given a definite spacing.
State Highways
State Highways should be extended to serve:
- District headquarters
- Sub-divisional (taluka) headquarters
- Major industrial centres
- Places of commercial interest
- Places of tourist attraction
- Major agricultural market centres
- Ports
Population Thresholds for District Roads
| Road Class | Should Serve and Connect |
|---|---|
| Major District Roads | All towns and villages with population 1,500 and above |
| Other District Roads | Villages with population 1,000 to 1,500 |
Energy, Environment and Safety
Energy conservation, environmental quality of roads and road safety measures were given due importance — the first time these concerns appear in an Indian road plan, and a clear sign of the plan’s later date.
Seven Criteria for Selecting Specifications
- Their amenability to stage construction
- The need to adopt appropriate technology
- The use of local materials
- The use of soil stabilisation techniques
- The use of alternate binders
- The use of cement concrete pavements wherever economically feasible
- The need to conserve bitumen
Read together, these seven describe a resource-conscious philosophy. Stage construction means building a road to a basic standard now and upgrading it as traffic grows, rather than over-building at the outset. Local materials and soil stabilisation reduce haulage. Alternate binders, cement concrete and bitumen conservation all point the same way — bitumen is imported and costly, so use less of it.
The Road Length Formulae
The plan gives formulae for the length of various classes of road, based on area and settlement numbers:
1. Length of National Highways (km) = Area (sq. km) / 50
2. Length of State Highways (km) = Area (sq. km) / 25
or, alternatively:
= 62.5 × (number of towns with population above 5,000) − Area (sq. km) / 50
3. Length of Major District Roads (km) = Area (sq. km) / 12.5
4. Total road length (km) = 4.74 × (number of villages and towns)
5. Rural road length = total road length minus the other categories
Reading the Denominators
The three area-based formulae share an obvious pattern:
| Road Class | Denominator | Relative Length |
|---|---|---|
| National Highways | 50 | 1 unit |
| State Highways | 25 | 2 units |
| Major District Roads | 12.5 | 4 units |
Each denominator is half the one above it, so each class has twice the length of the class above. That is exactly what a road hierarchy should look like — a few long-distance highways, more state roads feeding them, and more district roads again feeding those.
The NH denominator of 50 also matches the 100 km × 100 km grid. A 100 km square has an area of 10,000 sq. km, which by the formula requires 10,000/50 = 200 km of National Highway — precisely the two 100 km sides that form the grid square.
Quick Revision Notes
- Two shortcomings of earlier plans: not conceived for freight and passenger movement needs, and not part of the total transportation plan of the country.
- Three systems: Primary (Expressways, NH); Secondary (SH, MDR); Tertiary or Rural (ODR, VR).
- Target: 27,00,000 km by 2001, density 82 km per 100 sq. km.
- All-weather road for all villages with population 500 and above.
- Below 500 population: all-weather road within 3 km in plains, 5 km in hills.
- National Highways to form a 100 km × 100 km square grid.
- MDR to serve towns and villages of 1,500 and above; ODR to serve villages of 1,000 to 1,500.
- Energy conservation, environmental quality and road safety given due importance.
- Seven criteria for specifications, including stage construction, local materials and bitumen conservation.
- NH = Area/50, SH = Area/25, MDR = Area/12.5, Total = 4.74 × number of villages and towns.
Mistakes Students Commonly Make
- Mixing the density figures. Nagpur 16, Bombay 32, Lucknow 82.
- Mixing the length targets. Nagpur 2 lakh, Bombay 10 lakh, Lucknow 27 lakh km.
- Swapping the population thresholds. MDR serves 1,500 and above; ODR serves 1,000 to 1,500; all-weather connectivity applies at 500 and above.
- Swapping the 3 km and 5 km distances. 3 km plains, 5 km hills — the harder terrain gets the longer distance.
- Placing expressways in the secondary system. They are at the top of the primary system.
- Confusing the NH grid with the Nagpur star and grid pattern. Lucknow specifies a 100 km × 100 km square grid.
- Getting the formula denominators the wrong way round. Larger denominator means shorter length, so NH (50) is shortest and MDR (12.5) longest.
Conclusion
The Lucknow Plan closes the chapter on India’s twenty-year road plans, and it does so with a genuinely different outlook. It criticised its predecessors for counting roads instead of planning transport, reorganised the network into three functional systems, put expressways at the top of the hierarchy, and set the first meaningful rural connectivity commitment in the form of all-weather access for every village of 500 people. The formulae, with denominators halving down the hierarchy, capture the structure of a well-organised road network in three short expressions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What shortcomings of earlier plans did the Lucknow Plan identify?
That they were not conceived to meet the needs of freight and passenger movement by road, and that they were not part of the total transportation plan of the country.
How does the Lucknow Plan classify roads?
Into a primary system of Expressways and National Highways, a secondary system of State Highways and Major District Roads, and a tertiary or rural system of Other District Roads and Village Roads.
What was the road length target for 2001?
27,00,000 km, giving a road density of 82 km per 100 square kilometres.
What was the village connectivity target?
An all-weather road connecting all villages or groups of villages with a population of 500 and above by 2001.
What about villages with fewer than 500 people?
The network should be planned so that an all-weather road is available within less than 3 km in plain areas and less than 5 km in hilly terrain.
What grid was proposed for National Highways?
A square grid of 100 km by 100 km.
Which populations should MDR and ODR serve?
Major District Roads should serve all towns and villages of 1,500 and above. Other District Roads should serve villages of 1,000 to 1,500.
What are the road length formulae?
National Highways = Area/50, State Highways = Area/25, Major District Roads = Area/12.5, and total road length = 4.74 times the number of villages and towns, with area in square kilometres and lengths in kilometres.
What criteria govern the selection of specifications?
Amenability to stage construction, use of appropriate technology, use of local materials, soil stabilisation techniques, alternate binders, cement concrete pavements wherever economically feasible, and the need to conserve bitumen.
What new concerns appear in the Lucknow Plan?
Energy conservation, environmental quality of roads and road safety measures, none of which featured in the earlier plans.