New Delhi : Hundreds of kilometres of national and state highways in states like Maharashtra, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and others have turned into local, municipal or district roads, just a few days after a Supreme Court order banning liquor sale along highways.
Most states have not specified any reason for changing the categories. Yet, most of the decisions have come in the wake of the April 31 order of the Apex Court, lending it the shape of a nation-wide trend. Maharashtra government okayed proposals from three municipal corporations to classify highways passing through their areas to city roads, while Himachal Pradesh re-notified 16 state highways as major district roads. The West Bengal government declared around 275 km of state highways passing through various municipalities as ‘arterial roads’.
Uttarakhand cabinet allowing denotification of state highways located in the areas of local civic bodies and re-categorised them as other district roads saying highway specifications were coming in the way of their maintenance and expansion.
