BPSC 71st CCE Prelims Q42: Which state had the highest constructed road length under

Q: What is the answer to BPSC 71st CCE Prelims Q42?

A. Correct — A, Rajasthan. The table this question is drawn from is a government document: the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' written reply to Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2657, answered on 18 December 2024 by Nitin Gadkari, whose annexure gives State-wise Bharatmala progress. Its column headed 'Length Constructed till 31st Oct'24' reads Rajasthan 2,241 km, Uttar Pradesh 1,854 km, Maharashtra 1,837 km. Rajasthan is ahead by 387 km, while the two distractors sit 17 km apart from each other. The reason Rajasthan leads is the instructive part, because it is not that Rajasthan got the most road. On sanctioned length Rajasthan is only fifth: Uttar Pradesh has 3,127 km under Bharatmala, Madhya Pradesh 3,063 km, Maharashtra 3,029 km and Andhra Pradesh 2,525 km, against Rajasthan's 2,503 km. Rajasthan leads on execution. It had awarded 2,360 km of that 2,503 km and built 2,241 km — 89.5 per cent of its sanctioned length actually constructed, against 59.3 per cent for Uttar Pradesh and 60.7 per cent for Maharashtra. The completion ratio, not the size of the allocation, decides this question. For scale, the same reply gives the national position on the same date: Bharatmala Pariyojana was approved in 2017 for 34,800 km to improve connectivity and reduce logistics cost, and as on 31 October 2024, 26,425 km had been awarded and 18,714 km constructed, with NHAI expenditure of Rs 4.72 lakh crore up to 30 November 2024. Rajasthan alone therefore accounts for roughly one in every eight kilometres built under the scheme.

BPSC 71st CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 42 of 150

Verified against the official question booklet. Answer as per the official BPSC answer key.

Question order, option order and answers follow the official BPSC Booklet Series E (booklet GA-502), paper code 11/GA/CC/PT-2025.

Which state had the highest constructed road length under Bharatmala Pariyojana as of 31st October 2024?

(a)Rajasthan
(b)Uttar Pradesh
(c)Maharashtra
(d)More than one of the above

Answer

Why

Correct — A, Rajasthan. The table this question is drawn from is a government document: the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' written reply to Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2657, answered on 18 December 2024 by Nitin Gadkari, whose annexure gives State-wise Bharatmala progress. Its column headed 'Length Constructed till 31st Oct'24' reads Rajasthan 2,241 km, Uttar Pradesh 1,854 km, Maharashtra 1,837 km. Rajasthan is ahead by 387 km, while the two distractors sit 17 km apart from each other. The reason Rajasthan leads is the instructive part, because it is not that Rajasthan got the most road. On sanctioned length Rajasthan is only fifth: Uttar Pradesh has 3,127 km under Bharatmala, Madhya Pradesh 3,063 km, Maharashtra 3,029 km and Andhra Pradesh 2,525 km, against Rajasthan's 2,503 km. Rajasthan leads on execution. It had awarded 2,360 km of that 2,503 km and built 2,241 km — 89.5 per cent of its sanctioned length actually constructed, against 59.3 per cent for Uttar Pradesh and 60.7 per cent for Maharashtra. The completion ratio, not the size of the allocation, decides this question. For scale, the same reply gives the national position on the same date: Bharatmala Pariyojana was approved in 2017 for 34,800 km to improve connectivity and reduce logistics cost, and as on 31 October 2024, 26,425 km had been awarded and 18,714 km constructed, with NHAI expenditure of Rs 4.72 lakh crore up to 30 November 2024. Rajasthan alone therefore accounts for roughly one in every eight kilometres built under the scheme.

Why the others are wrong

(b)Uttar Pradesh — The strongest wrong answer, and the one the item is built to draw, because Uttar Pradesh genuinely does top Bharatmala on the metric they are half-remembering: it has the largest sanctioned allocation of any state at 3,127 km and 2,496 km awarded. But the stem names length constructed as on 31 October 2024, and on that column UP stands at 1,854 km — 387 km behind Rajasthan, because it had converted only 59.3 per cent of its sanctioned length into finished road.
(c)Maharashtra — Maharashtra carries 3,029 km sanctioned and 2,174 km awarded, the third-largest allocation, and it is the state candidates associate with big expressway building. Its constructed figure on 31 October 2024 was 1,837 km, which is 60.7 per cent of its sanctioned length and just 17 km behind Uttar Pradesh. The two distractors are effectively tied with each other, and neither is anywhere near Rajasthan's 2,241 km.
(d)More than one of the above — For (d) to hold, two of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra would have to share the highest constructed length, which a single ranked column cannot produce unless two entries tie exactly. The ministry's annexure gives three distinct figures — 2,241, 1,854 and 1,837 km — so exactly one state tops the table. Under the booklet's own one-third-mark penalty, choosing (d) here converts a knowable fact into a lost mark.

Concept

Bharatmala Pariyojana is the Government of India's umbrella highway development programme, approved in 2017 for 34,800 km with two stated aims — improving connectivity and reducing India's logistics cost. It is not one road but a set of categories assembled so that freight moves along planned corridors instead of along whatever highway happens to exist: economic corridors, inter-corridor and feeder routes, national corridor efficiency improvements, border and international connectivity roads, coastal and port connectivity roads, and greenfield expressways. Execution runs largely through the National Highways Authority of India. One detail from the ministry's own reply matters for the exam: no State-wise fund allocation is made to NHAI under Bharatmala, so a state's progress reflects its project pipeline, land acquisition and execution speed rather than a budget share handed to it. That is exactly why the programme is reported in three separate columns for every state — total sanctioned length, length awarded, and length constructed — and why the three rank the states differently. Reading the wrong column is the commonest error on this whole family of questions, and the setter here has built the question on that gap.

The question turns entirely on which column you read. 'Constructed' is neither 'sanctioned' nor 'awarded', and Bharatmala reporting keeps all three side by side. A candidate reasoning from general scale thinks Uttar Pradesh — most populous state, biggest road allocation — and answers (b); a candidate reasoning from images of expressway construction answers (c). Both are silently reading the sanctioned-length column. The single discriminating fact is Rajasthan's completion ratio: 2,241 km built out of 2,503 km sanctioned, close to 90 per cent, against roughly 60 per cent for both Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. There is a physical reason behind that ratio worth carrying as a mental model. Rajasthan is India's largest state by area at 342,239 sq km, largely flat and thinly settled, so alignment and land acquisition move faster than in the crowded Gangetic plain or across the Western Ghats — the 373 km Rajasthan section of the 1,386 km Delhi–Mumbai Expressway, whose first 246 km opened in February 2023, is the visible result. Notice too how tight the wrong pair is: Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are 17 km apart on a table measured in thousands, so a candidate who has narrowed the field to those two is guessing at a coin-flip. Finally, respect the date stamp. The stem fixes 31 October 2024, and construction has continued since, so this is a fact about that date and not a permanent property of Rajasthan.

Key facts

MoRTH's reply to Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2657 (answered 18 December 2024) gives length constructed till 31 October 2024: Rajasthan 2,241 km, Uttar Pradesh 1,854 km, Maharashtra 1,837 km, Madhya Pradesh 1,407 km, Tamil Nadu 1,185 km, Karnataka 1,043 km, Andhra Pradesh 994 km.
Sanctioned length inverts that ranking — Uttar Pradesh 3,127 km, Madhya Pradesh 3,063 km, Maharashtra 3,029 km, Andhra Pradesh 2,525 km, Rajasthan 2,503 km — so Rajasthan is fifth on allocation and first on construction, having built 89.5 per cent of its target against about 60 per cent for UP and Maharashtra.
National position on 31 October 2024: Bharatmala Pariyojana approved in 2017 for 34,800 km, 26,425 km awarded and 18,714 km constructed, with NHAI expenditure of Rs 4.72 lakh crore up to 30 November 2024 and no State-wise fund allocation made to NHAI.
Under the Port and Coastal Connectivity Roads category, 18 projects covering 424 km had been awarded and 189 km constructed, serving ports in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.
Bihar's row in the same annexure: 1,572 km sanctioned, 1,159 km awarded and 641 km constructed as on 31 October 2024 — a completion ratio of 40.8 per cent against Rajasthan's 89.5 per cent. At the extremes, Goa's entire 26 km is built, while West Bengal had awarded only 385 km of 874 km.

Study next

Bharatmala Pariyojana's project categories — economic corridors, inter-corridor and feeder routes, national corridor efficiency improvements, border and international connectivity roads, coastal and port connectivity roads, and greenfield expresswaysThe National Highways Development Project and the Golden Quadrilateral with its North–South and East–West corridors — the programme Bharatmala succeededPM Gati Shakti National Master Plan and the National Logistics Policy — the logistics-cost objective that Bharatmala's own approval note citesIndia's road hierarchy and who owns what: national highways (MoRTH/NHAI), state highways, major district roads and rural roads under PMGSY, and why national highways carry a share of traffic far larger than their share of lengthBihar's road infrastructure — 1,572 km sanctioned under Bharatmala, the Ganga bridge corridors and the state's east–west corridor alignment

Common traps

Answering with the state that has the largest sanctioned or awarded length when the stem asks for length constructed — the three columns rank the states differently
Assuming the biggest or most populous state must lead; Rajasthan wins on completion ratio, not on allocation size
Forgetting that the stem is date-stamped to 31 October 2024, so the ranking is a snapshot and not a standing fact

BPSC asks the ranking directly and date-stamps it — 'which state had the highest constructed road length as of 31st October 2024' — which means the answer sits in one cell of one government annexure, and the mark goes to whoever has read the right column of a recent Parliament reply. UPSC has almost never asked a state to be ranked on a scheme's progress. It asks about the network itself: what share of road traffic national highways carry, which route is longest, which corridor links which cities. So track Bharatmala's tables for BPSC and the highway network's structure for UPSC.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2002_GS1_Q942002Open & attempt →

With reference to Indian transport systems, consider the following statements: 1. Indian railways system is the largest in the world. 2. National Highways cater to 45 per cent of the total road transport demand. 3. Among the states, Kerala has the highest density of surface road. 4. National Highway No. 7 is the longest in the country. Which of these statements are correct?

(a) 1 and 2
(b) 1 and 3
(c) 2 and 3
(d) 2 and 4

Answer(d) 2 and 4

The same subject measured the same way — the national highway network's share of traffic and the ranking of states and routes within it. Statement 2 carries the fact that makes Bharatmala worth building: national highways are a small fraction of India's road length but carry close to half its road traffic, which is why a corridor programme concentrates money on them.

UPSC_2004_GS1_Q542004Open & attempt →

Which among the following National Highway routes is the longest?

(a) Agra – Mumbai
(b) Chennai – Thane
(c) Kolkata – Hajira
(d) Pune – Machilipatnam

Answer(c) Kolkata – Hajira

Structurally the identical task: four candidates from India's highway network, ranked on kilometres, with the mark going to whoever holds the actual figures rather than a general impression of importance. UPSC ranks routes where BPSC ranks states, but in both cases the trap is substituting prominence for length.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Bharatmala Pariyojana, approved by the Government of India in 2017, covers a total length of about
- (a)24,800 km
- (b)34,800 km
- (c)44,800 km
- (d)54,800 km
Answer(b) 34,800 km — the programme was approved in 2017 for 34,800 km to improve connectivity and reduce logistics cost; 26,425 km had been awarded and 18,714 km constructed as on 31 October 2024.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which State had the highest sanctioned length under Bharatmala Pariyojana as per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' State-wise table ?
- (a)Rajasthan
- (b)Madhya Pradesh
- (c)Uttar Pradesh
- (d)Maharashtra
Answer(c) Uttar Pradesh — 3,127 km sanctioned, ahead of Madhya Pradesh 3,063 km and Maharashtra 3,029 km, with Rajasthan fifth at 2,503 km. Rajasthan nonetheless tops the constructed-length column, which is the distinction the question tests.