NH 27
Porbandar–Silchar Highway
Also known as East–West Corridor and Formed from parts of the former NH 8B, 8A, 15, 14, 76, 25, 28, 57, 31, 37 and 54
3,507 km
Open
7 states
National Highway
Route
NH 27 runs 3,507 km from Porbandar, Gujarat to Silchar, Assam.
Crosses Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.
Through Porbandar, Rajkot, Udaipur, Kota, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarpur, Siliguri, Guwahati and Silchar.
Why it matters
NH 27 is India's main east–west road. It is the only continuous highway linking Gujarat's ports to the north-east, and where it threads the Siliguri corridor it becomes a single road lifeline for the entire region beyond. Fuel, food grain, cement and consumer goods for Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram all travel along it, which is why a landslide in the Assam hills can leave thousands of trucks stranded for days.
History
NH 27 runs across the widest part of India, from Porbandar on the Arabian Sea in Gujarat to Silchar in the Barak Valley of Assam. It is the backbone of the East–West Corridor, a project that four-laned one continuous route between the country's western and eastern ends. The single number NH 27 was applied in the 2010 renumbering, which stitched together stretches of about a dozen older highways. Along the way the road crosses deserts, plains, the Ganga's floodplains, the narrow Siliguri corridor and the hills of Assam. Its hardest sections have been the Chambal crossing at Kota, where a cable-stayed bridge finally opened in 2017 after a construction collapse halted work for years, and the steep, rain-soaked Dima Hasao hills before Silchar, which landslides still block most monsoons.
Good to know
- India's second-longest national highway, at about 3,507 km.
- Passes through seven states between the Arabian Sea and the Barak Valley.
- Crosses NH 44, the North–South Corridor, near Jhansi — the meeting point of India's two longest highways.
- Crosses the Brahmaputra river near Guwahati at the Saraighat bridge.
- Squeezes through the narrow Siliguri corridor, the strip of land that joins north-east India to the rest of the country.
- Its last stretch winds through the forested hills of Dima Hasao district to reach Silchar.
- The Kota bypass carries the highway over the Chambal on a cable-stayed 'hanging bridge' opened in 2017.
- The Assam hill stretch near Haflong and Jatinga is one of India's most landslide-prone highway sections.
Timeline
- 2003East–West Corridor four-laning taken up under the National Highways Development Project
- 2010Given the number NH 27 when India renumbered its national highways, joining about a dozen older routes
- 2017The cable-stayed Chambal bridge on the Kota bypass opens, completing a long-delayed link on the corridor
Key junctions
- Udaipur — meets NH 48, the Delhi–Ahmedabad–Mumbai highway
- Kota — the bypass and its Chambal bridge take through-traffic clear of the city
- Jhansi — crosses NH 44, the North–South Corridor
- Kanpur — crosses NH 19, the Delhi–Kolkata Grand Trunk corridor
- Lucknow — joins the city's outer ring road; the Purvanchal Expressway starts just outside the city
- Gorakhpur — the Gorakhpur Link Expressway runs south from here to the Purvanchal Expressway
- Muzaffarpur — crosses NH 22, the Nepal border–Patna–Gaya highway
- Siliguri — the gateway junction for Darjeeling, Sikkim, Nepal, Bhutan and the whole north-east
- Guwahati — crosses the Brahmaputra at Saraighat
Engineering highlights
- Kota Chambal cable-stayed bridge — the 'hanging bridge' on the Kota bypass, with a 350 m main span, opened in 2017; a partly built span had collapsed in 2009, killing dozens of workers and halting the job for years
- Saraighat bridge, Guwahati — carries the highway over the Brahmaputra; the first bridge ever built across the river in Assam stood here, and a newer road bridge now runs beside it
- Dima Hasao hill section — the winding Lumding–Haflong–Jatinga–Silchar stretch through steep, rain-soaked hills, regularly blocked by landslides in the monsoon
On the road
Driving all 3,500 km is a five- to six-day trip and almost nobody does it in one go. The Gujarat and Rajasthan stretches are fast and open; the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar stretches pass through many towns and are much slower. The hardest leg is the Assam hill road between Lumding, Haflong and Silchar — narrow, winding and often shut by landslides between June and September, so check its status before starting. Winter fog slows the Bihar and north Bengal sections through December and January. October to March is the best overall season.
What’s coming next
- A ring road around Guwahati has been approved to take through-traffic off the crowded city stretch.
- Repair and stabilisation work on the landslide-hit Dima Hasao hill section in Assam is under way.
More details
- Lanes
- Mostly 4 lanes, divided carriageway