The Golden Quadrilateral highway network connects which four cities?

The correct answer is A, NH-44, which runs about 3,745 kilometres from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and is the longest National Highway in the country. It was created in the renumbering of 2010 by merging several older highways, including the old NH-1A, NH-1, NH-2, NH-3, NH-75, NH-26 and NH-7, and it passes through about a dozen states and union territories. Option B, NH-27, is the longest east-west highway, running from Porbandar in Gujarat to Silchar in Assam along the East-West Corridor, and it is the second longest overall, which makes it the strongest distractor. Option C, NH-48, is the busy Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai route that replaced the old NH-8. Option D, NH-16, runs along the eastern coast from Kolkata towards Chennai. Remember the numbering rule as well: NH-44 runs north to south and therefore carries an even number, and even numbers increase from the east coast towards the west.

The correct answer is A, Srinagar and Kanyakumari. NH-44 begins at Srinagar in the Kashmir valley and ends at Kanyakumari at the southern tip of the peninsula, covering about 3,745 kilometres and passing through Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It therefore follows the alignment of the old North-South Corridor of the National Highways Development Project. Option B, Porbandar to Silchar, is the East-West Corridor, carried largely by NH-27, which is the longest east-west highway. Option C, Delhi to Mumbai, is covered by NH-48 on the road and by the new Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. Option D, Kolkata to Chennai, is the eastern coastal leg of the Golden Quadrilateral, carried mainly by NH-16. Learn the four corridors and their end points as a set, because the question is usually made by exchanging one pair for another.

The correct answer is B, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, about 94.5 kilometres long, opened fully in 2002 and formally named the Yashwantrao Chavan Expressway. It was the first road in India built as a six-lane concrete expressway with fully controlled access, no crossings at grade and no entry for slow-moving traffic, and it crosses the Sahyadri through a series of tunnels and viaducts. Option A, the Yamuna Expressway, is 165 kilometres from Greater Noida to Agra and was opened in 2012, a decade later. Option C, the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, is about 96 kilometres and belongs to the last decade. Option D, the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, is 302 kilometres and was opened in 2016. All three are genuine expressways, so the question turns purely on which came first, and the date 2002 settles it. The longest expressway project in the country is the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at 1,386 kilometres.

The correct answer is B, the Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh. The Atal Tunnel is 9.02 kilometres long, was built by the Border Roads Organisation and was inaugurated on 3 October 2020; it connects Manali with the Lahaul valley on the way to Leh, shortens the journey considerably and keeps the route open through the winter months when the pass above is buried in snow. It is described as the world's longest highway tunnel above an altitude of three thousand metres. Option A, Zoji La, on the Srinagar-Leh road, is where a longer tunnel is being driven that will be among the longest in Asia when complete. Option C, Nathu La, is a pass on the Sikkim border with Tibet and is a trade route, not a tunnel site. Option D, the Banihal Pass, is associated with the Jawahar Tunnel and with the Pir Panjal railway tunnel on the Banihal-Qazigund section.

The correct answer is B, 1988. The National Highways Authority of India Act was passed in 1988, and the authority it created became operational in 1995; it develops, maintains and manages the National Highways entrusted to it and is the body behind the Golden Quadrilateral and most of the country's expressways, working under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Option C, 1995, is the year it actually began functioning, which is the usual trap in this question, so keep the two dates in order: constituted in 1988, operational in 1995. Option A, 1956, is the year of the National Highways Act, the law under which a road is declared a National Highway and tolls are levied. Option D, 2017, is the year the Bharatmala Pariyojana was approved as the umbrella highway programme. Also remember the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation, set up in 2014 for border and north-eastern roads.