Which state has the worst highways in India? BHPians voted...

Do vote based on your personal driving experience on the State and National Highways.

BHPian iamitp recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Dear BHPians,

This is a follow-up from the thread on 'Which State has the best Highways in India?' which saw almost 500 responses and clearly established Tamil Nadu (almost 50% of the votes!) as the State with India's best highways. Gujarat and Rajasthan made up the 2nd and 3rd spot with about 12% each.

Now, time to highlight the State with the worst highways in the country. As before, the objective of this thread is to quantify your personal experiences and read what the numbers have to say.

Just to make things clear, let's vote on the 'driveability' of the roads, i.e. safety, consistency, layout, signs & markings, lighting, amenities etc. and not how scenic the views are.

We can have a separate poll on the state with the most scenic roads, maybe.

Please do vote based on your personal driving experience on the State and National Highways passing through the states.

Preferably vote only for those states where you have personally driven more than 500 km.

Kindly refrain from basing your vote based on city/town/village roads as that deserves a separate poll.

Let us keep UTs apart from this poll due to their small Highway network length and be cognizant of the terrain challenges faced by hilly and Northeastern states.

Here's what BHPian Kottayamkaran had to say on the matter:

Hands down Kerala has the worst highways in all of India. Driving on Kerala highways is like driving inside the town. One can hardly drive in the highest gear and requires constant gear changes. Also, the toll amount for the roads keeps going higher. It was Rs.55 for one side a few years back and at present, it is Rs.75 for one side toll at Paliyekara. Also, construction activities take longer time than in other states due to labour problems and problems in land acquisition. The width of NH-17 at some places in Kochi is lower than some of the village roads.

Here's what BHPian Tgo had to say on the matter:

Voted Haryana.

The KMP, Eastern Peripheral section in Haryana are some of the worst examples of roadwork. Sagging roads near culverts give you drops of almost 4-6 inches at the interface of the tarmac and the concrete. With speeds you are supposed to be doing, bent rims are the least of your concerns, think more on the lines of totalling your cars.

Highways connecting Rohtak, Hissar, Gurgaon, and Bahadurgarh (may have missed a few more) have very sharp turns and vague signage. Add to that the muscle men at toll plazas, both, in the cars and the booth settling arguments. Also, parts of these highways were prone to flooding till a few years ago.

Here's what BHPian normaltusker had to say on the matter:

I chose Maharashtra. The majority of my driving is between Karnataka and Maharashtra where the driving time is generally early in the morning. What I have noticed is that the highways in Karnataka are beautiful, well managed 6 lane roads with sensible traffic while those in Maha are mostly 4 lanes with one lane being blocked by Sugarcane tractors. Where there are no Sugarcane tractors, both lanes would be blocked by 2 wheelers!

Even where the tarmac is concerned, most part is generally for want of repair and the cruising speed needs to drastically come down to 50-60 km/h!

Here's what BHPian SILVER-ARROW had to say on the matter:

Having driven in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Can safely vouch that highways in Maharashtra are not even close to being called state highways. Barring few exceptions the road conditions are horrible.

Driving a stretch between Kolhapur and Nipani is enough to lay rest to the doubts about the condition of highways between Maharashtra and Karnataka. Not only the highways, general driving sense, but lane discipline too is also better followed in Karnataka and Gujarat.

Of course, my observations are based on the few states that I have driven, Other forum members can also pitch in with their opinion.

Here's what BHPian binand had to say on the matter:

Voted Kerala - my home state. Is there any other state where a distance of about 180 km (my parents' house to my in-laws' house) takes nearly 6 hours?

Here's what BHPian Rajeevraj had to say on the matter:

Another vote for Kerala. Of course, I have mostly driven only in South India, but fair to say that nothing would come close to Kerala. The roads are narrow, way too overloaded, no thinly populated stretches all of which means that you cannot travel more than 30km per hour which obviously leads to rash driving to try to eke out that extra distance or speed.

Even the main highways have not been upgraded yet and are in the same state as it was 30 years ago.

The only saving grace is that the surface and road markings are excellent and you rarely find unscientific humps irrespective of the type of road. So if you are driving late nights or early mornings when the traffic madness has not started, especially on the smaller roads, it is a joy to drive.

On a side note, Kerala has 4 international level airports but I just realised that there are pretty much no flights between them. I needed to go from Calicut to Trivandrum and flight is not even an option. Driving is obviously a nightmare, so the only realistic option is a train. Since that is the default option for everyone, getting a ticket is also hard.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.