NECESSITY OF HIGHWAY PLANNING
In the present era planning is considered as a pre-requisite before attempting any
development programme. This is particularly true for any engneering work, as planning
is the basic requirement for any new project or an expansion programme. Thus highway
planning is also a basic need for highway development. Particularly planning is of great
importance when the funds available are limited whereas the total requirement is much
higher. This is actually the problem in all developing countries like India as the best
utilisation of available funds has to be made in a systematic and planned way.
The objects of highway planning are briefly given below
(i) To plan a road net work for eficient and safe trafic operation, but at minimum
cost. Here the costs of construction, maintenance and renewal of pavement layers
and the vehicle operation costs are to be given due consideration.
(ii) To arrive at the road system and the lengths of different categories of roads which
could provide maximum utility and could be constructed within the available
resources during the plan perod under consideration.
(iii) To fix up date wise priorities for development of each road link based on utility as
the main criterion for phasing the road development programme.
(iv) To plan for future requirements and improvements of roads in view of anticipated
developments.
(V) To work out financing system.
