Which Indian national highway is the longest, running from Srinagar to Kanyakumari?

Which Indian national highway is the longest, running from Srinagar to Kanyakumari? The answer is National Highway 44 (NH 44).

NH 44 stretches roughly 4,112 kilometers from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. It forms India’s principal north–south road spine, passing through major cities and regions including Delhi, Agra, Gwalior, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Madurai.

The modern route was created by combining sections of several older highways, including former NH 1A, NH 1, NH 2, NH 3, NH 75, NH 26 and NH 7. That history explains why parts of NH 44 differ in terrain and design: the road crosses Himalayan foothills, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the Deccan Plateau and southern Tamil Nadu.

A common mix-up is NH 27, which is associated with India’s east–west highway corridor from Silchar to Porbandar. NH 44 is also closely linked to the North–South Corridor, a major National Highways Development Project designed to improve long-distance freight and passenger movement.