NH 30
Sitarganj–Ibrahimpatnam Highway
Also known as Formed from parts of the former NH 74, NH 24, NH 24B, NH 27, NH 7, NH 12A, NH 43 and NH 221
1,984 km
Open
6 states
National Highway
Route
NH 30 runs 1,984 km from Sitarganj, Uttarakhand to Ibrahimpatnam (near Vijayawada), Andhra Pradesh.
Crosses Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Through Sitarganj, Bareilly, Lucknow, Raebareli, Prayagraj, Rewa, Katni, Jabalpur, Raipur, Jagdalpur, Bhadrachalam and Ibrahimpatnam.
Why it matters
NH 30 is one of the few long highways that runs down the middle of India instead of along a coast or a famous corridor. It ties the Kumaon foothills, the Awadh plains, the Ganga cities, the coal-and-cement belt of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and the Godavari valley into a single line. For remote districts such as Bastar it is often the only proper road to a hospital, a market or a railway station.
History
NH 30 begins at Sitarganj in the farm country below the Kumaon hills and travels almost the whole height of India to end near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. It was pieced together in the renumbering of national highways from stretches of about eight older roads, including the Bareilly–Lucknow road, the Lucknow–Prayagraj road via Raebareli, and the old highway through Jabalpur to Raipur. In the north it crosses some of the most crowded farmland in India; in the middle it climbs through the Vindhya and Satpura hills around Rewa and Jabalpur. Its southern part runs through the forested Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, one of the hardest places in the country to build and keep a road open. Further south it reaches the temple town of Bhadrachalam on the Godavari, where a second bridge opened in 2024 to take pressure off the old one. It finishes at Ibrahimpatnam, just outside Vijayawada, where it meets NH 65.
Good to know
- About 1,984 km long, passing through six states from Uttarakhand to Andhra Pradesh.
- Starts at a junction with NH 9 at Sitarganj and ends at a junction with NH 65 at Ibrahimpatnam, near Vijayawada.
- One of the ten longest national highways in India.
- Passes close to the Kanha Tiger Reserve on the stretch between Mandla and the Chhattisgarh border.
- Runs through Jagdalpur, the main town of the remote and forested Bastar region.
- The Keskal ghat, a twisting climb between Kanker and Kondagaon, lifts the highway onto the Bastar plateau.
- At Bhadrachalam it crosses the Godavari beside a famous temple of Lord Rama.
- A second Godavari bridge at Bhadrachalam opened in April 2024, doubling the crossing there.
Timeline
- 2010sAssembled from stretches of about eight older highways during the national highway renumbering
- 2024A second bridge over the Godavari opens at Bhadrachalam, beside the older single bridge
Key junctions
- Sitarganj — the northern end, on NH 9
- Lucknow — crosses NH 27, the East–West Corridor
- Prayagraj — crosses NH 19, the Delhi–Kolkata highway
- Jabalpur — meets NH 34, which comes down from the Himalayas
- Raipur — crosses NH 53, the Gujarat–Odisha highway
- Ibrahimpatnam — the southern end, on NH 65 just outside Vijayawada
Engineering highlights
- Keskal Ghat — a steep, winding climb through the Bastar hills between Kanker and Kondagaon, notorious for slow truck traffic
- Second Godavari bridge, Bhadrachalam — opened in 2024 beside the older bridge at the temple town, giving the highway two crossings of the river
On the road
Almost nobody drives the whole 1,984 km — the road is used in pieces. The Lucknow–Raebareli–Prayagraj leg is mostly four-lane and quick, while the Bastar stretch between Kanker and Konta is narrow, forested and best driven in daylight. Winter fog badly slows the Uttar Pradesh section in December and January, and heavy monsoon rain can flood low points near the Godavari.
More details
- Lanes
- Mix of 2-lane and 4-lane sections