NH 16
Kolkata–Chennai Highway
Also known as National Highway 5 (old numbering) and Golden Quadrilateral (east coast arm)
1,711 km
Open
4 states
National Highway
Route
NH 16 runs 1,711 km from Kolkata, West Bengal to Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Crosses West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Through Kolkata, Kharagpur, Balasore, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Brahmapur, Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, Guntur, Nellore and Chennai.
Why it matters
NH 16 is the main street of India's east coast. It ties together the ports of Kolkata, Visakhapatnam and Chennai and the steel, cement and chemical belt around them, and it is the route rice, coal, cars and containers take between eastern and southern India. When cyclones come ashore from the Bay of Bengal, the same road carries the relief lorries and evacuation buses.
History
NH 16 is the great east-coast highway of India, running from Kolkata down to Chennai close to the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Most of it was the famous old NH 5 before the 2010 renumbering, and it forms the eastern arm of the Golden Quadrilateral. The road follows the flat coastal plain between the Eastern Ghats and the sea, crossing the deltas of some of India's biggest rivers and linking a chain of major ports and industrial cities. Four-laning under the Golden Quadrilateral in the 2000s turned what had been a slow single-carriageway road into one of the country's fastest long-distance routes. Today parts of it are being widened again, from four lanes to six, because traffic has grown so much.
Good to know
- About 1,711 km long, forming the Kolkata–Chennai arm of the Golden Quadrilateral.
- It is the longest of the four arms of the Golden Quadrilateral.
- Crosses three of India's great rivers — the Mahanadi near Cuttack, the Godavari at Rajahmundry and the Krishna at Vijayawada.
- The Krishna crossing at Vijayawada is the 2.6 km Kanaka Durga Varadhi bridge.
- Passes close to Chilika Lake in Odisha, India's largest coastal lagoon.
- Serves the port cities of Visakhapatnam and Chennai.
- Runs through Sullurpeta, the town at the gateway to the Sriharikota rocket launch centre.
- For long stretches it runs beside the Howrah–Chennai railway line down the coast.
Timeline
- 2001Four-laning begins under the Golden Quadrilateral project
- 2010Renumbered from NH 5 to NH 16
- 2012Golden Quadrilateral programme declared substantially complete
Key junctions
- Kharagpur — NH 14 comes down from Morgram and NH 49 heads west towards Chhattisgarh
- Chandikhol (Odisha) — junction with NH 53, the road to Paradip port and inland to Sambalpur
- Anandapuram (Visakhapatnam) — the big junction on the northern edge of Visakhapatnam
- Vijayawada — meets NH 65, the highway to Hyderabad and Pune
- Chennai — southern end, where it meets NH 48 towards Bengaluru and the roads around the city
Engineering highlights
- Kanaka Durga Varadhi, Vijayawada — 2.6 km bridge carrying the highway over the Krishna river
- Godavari crossing at Rajahmundry — the highway crosses the Godavari on one of the longest road bridges in Andhra Pradesh
- Mahanadi bridge near Cuttack — carries the highway over the Mahanadi just north of Cuttack, on the way in from Chandikhol
On the road
Kolkata to Chennai is about 1,700 km — roughly 28 to 30 hours of driving, so most people spread it over two or three days. The Andhra Pradesh section is among the fastest, best-kept highways in the country, with big roadside food courts every hour or so. There are many toll plazas, so keep a FASTag topped up. October to December is cyclone season on this coast, and heavy rain can flood low-lying stretches for a day or two.
What’s coming next
- Long sections in Andhra Pradesh, including the stretch from Anakapalli towards the Godavari districts, are being widened from four lanes to six.
More details
- Lanes
- Mostly 4–6 lanes, divided carriageway