List of Top 10 Longest National Highways in India

India has one of the largest road networks in the world. The total length of national highways in India reached over 1,46,560 km as of 2025, with Maharashtra having the longest state network at approximately 18,459 km, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. 

National highways form only about 2% of India's total road network but carry nearly 40% of total traffic. They are developed and maintained by NHAI, NHIDCL, and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).

Highway numbering was rationalized in 2010: even numbers run north-south and odd numbers run east-west. North-south highways increase in number from east to west, while east-west highways increase in number from north to south. This logic alone can help UPSC aspirants eliminate wrong answer choices without memorizing every highway number.

List of Top 10 Longest National Highways in India

1. NH 44

NH 44 has a length of 4,113 km. It starts at NH 1 in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, and ends at Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. NH 44 was created by joining seven smaller highways into one. It ranks around 22nd among the longest national highways in the world. 

It forms the full length of India's North-South Corridor under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP). It is also part of the Asian Highway network (AH1, AH2, AH43). Major cities on the route include Jalandhar, Delhi, Agra, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Madurai. 

2. NH 27

NH 27 has a length of 3,507 km. It starts in Porbandar, Gujarat, and ends in Silchar, Assam. The highway passes through Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam. It is the second longest national highway in India and is part of the NS-EW Corridor of NHAI.

NH 27 is the East-West Corridor counterpart to NH 44's North-South Corridor. It intersects NH 44 at Jhansi. The route passes through Udaipur, Jhansi, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarpur, Siliguri, and Guwahati. 

3. NH 48

NH 48 starts at Delhi and terminates at Chennai, passing through seven states. It has a total length of 2,807 km and traverses Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.

NH 48 is a core segment of the Golden Quadrilateral. It passes through Gurugram, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru before reaching Chennai. 

4. NH 52

NH 52 is the fourth longest national highway in India, with a length of 2,317 km. It starts at NH 7 in Sangrur, Punjab, and ends at NH 66 in Ankola, Karnataka. It passes through Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.

The highway connects the agricultural heartland of Punjab and Haryana to the industrial and port zones of Karnataka.

5. NH 30

NH 30 has a total length of 1,984.3 km. It starts at Sitarganj in Uttarakhand at the junction of NH 9 and ends at Ibrahimpatnam, Vijayawada, in Andhra Pradesh at the junction of NH 65. It passes through Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh.

NH 30 was previously numbered as NH 221 under the old system. It passes through Lucknow, Prayagraj, Jabalpur, Raipur, Jagdalpur, and Bhadrachalam, a major pilgrimage town on the Godavari river.