The East-West Corridor connect ________ to ________.

Correct — option (3), Silchar to Porbandar.

The East-West Corridor runs from Silchar in Assam to Porbandar in Gujarat, so Silchar to Porbandar is the answer.

A PIB release of 7 February 2004 set out the National Highways Development Project (NHDP). Its Phase I was the Golden Quadrilateral. Phase II was the North-South and East-West Corridors, from Srinagar to Kanniyakumari and from Silchar to Porbandar, about 7,300 km in all.

A Lok Sabha answer of 3 August 2017 by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways gave the two lengths: Srinagar to Kanniyakumari 4,000 km, and Silchar to Porbandar 3,300 km.

NHAI's chainage chart for the corridor (status as on 31 May 2017) lists its Rajasthan stretches in order: the Madhya Pradesh border to Kota, Kota to Chittorgarh, Chittorgarh to Udaipur, then on through Gogunda and Swaroopganj to the Gujarat border near Palanpur.

Fix both ends: Silchar in the east, Porbandar in the west. None of the cities in the other three options is an end-point.

Why the others are wrong

• (1)
  Imphal to Ahmedabad — Neither city is an end of the East-West Corridor. Imphal is the capital of Manipur, while the corridor's eastern end is Silchar in Assam.

  Ahmedabad is in Gujarat, the same state as Porbandar. The option gets the western state right and the western city wrong.

• (2)
  Dimapur to Vadodara — Neither city is an end-point. Dimapur is in Nagaland; the corridor's eastern end is Silchar in Assam.

  Vadodara is in Gujarat, but the corridor's Gujarat stretches in NHAI's chainage chart run through places including Deesa, Radhanpur, Rajkot and Jetpur to Porbandar, its western end.

• (4)
  Guwahati to Kandla Port — This option starts on the corridor but not at its end. NHAI's chainage chart lists a Guwahati bypass on the East-West Corridor; from there the route runs through Nagaon and Lumding to Silchar, the eastern end.

  Kandla is a major port. The 2004 PIB release listed it among the ports to be joined to NHDP highways by separate port-connectivity roads. The corridor's western end is Porbandar.

The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) was a programme to widen national highways to four or six lanes. A PIB release of 7 February 2004 put it at about 13,150 km.

Its Phase I, the Golden Quadrilateral, is the Delhi–Kolkata–Chennai–Mumbai–Delhi circuit of 5,846 km. Phase II is the pair of corridors: North-South, from Srinagar to Kanniyakumari, and East-West, from Silchar to Porbandar.

The two corridors meet at Jhansi. NHAI's chainage charts list Gwalior–Jhansi and Jhansi–Lalitpur stretches on the North-South Corridor, and a Jhansi bypass and a Jhansi–Shivpuri stretch on the East-West Corridor.

Key facts

• NHDP Phase II was the North-South and East-West Corridors, about 7,300 km in all (PIB release, 7 February 2004).
• East-West Corridor: Silchar to Porbandar, 3,300 km. North-South Corridor: Srinagar to Kanniyakumari, 4,000 km (Lok Sabha answer, 3 August 2017).
• NHDP Phase I, the Golden Quadrilateral, is the Delhi–Kolkata–Chennai–Mumbai–Delhi circuit of 5,846 km (PIB release, 2004).
• NHAI's chainage charts (status 31 May 2017) list Jhansi stretches on both the North-South and the East-West Corridors.
• In Rajasthan the East-West Corridor runs via Kota, Chittorgarh and Udaipur; the North-South Corridor has stretches at Dholpur.

Common traps

• Guwahati lies on the East-West Corridor, so an option starting there can look right. The eastern end is Silchar, beyond Nagaon and Lumding.
• Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Kandla and Porbandar are all in Gujarat. Knowing the western state does not pick the western end.
• The corridors and the Golden Quadrilateral are different NHDP phases. Corner cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata belong to Phase I.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The North-South Corridor of the National Highways Development Project connects –

  • (a)Srinagar to Kanniyakumari
  • (b)Delhi to Chennai
  • (c)Amritsar to Madurai
  • (d)Jammu to Thiruvananthapuram
  Answer(1) — The Lok Sabha answer of 3 August 2017 gives the North-South Corridor as Srinagar to Kanniyakumari, 4,000 km. Option (2), Delhi to Chennai, joins two corners of the Golden Quadrilateral. Options (3) and (4) name neither end of the corridor.
• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following cities lies on both the North-South Corridor and the East-West Corridor ?

  • (a)Nagpur
  • (b)Jhansi
  • (c)Kota
  • (d)Gwalior
  Answer(2) — NHAI's chainage charts list Jhansi stretches on both corridors. Option (1), Nagpur, and option (4), Gwalior, appear only on the North-South chart. Option (3), Kota, appears only on the East-West chart, which runs Kota–Chittorgarh–Udaipur in Rajasthan.