Sources in the road, transport and highways ministry said the final notification could happen any time and that the renumbering has already been vetted by the law ministry. ``We have already circulated the details to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the state governments. So, they are in the know of this. Though it will take a couple of years for people to get accustomed to the new numbers, in the long run this will prove as a big help, more so when we are adding more stretches to the NH network,'' an official said.

As per the detailed report, highways starting from north to south will be in even numbers and those running in the east-west direction will be in odd numbers. For example, the East-West corridor starting from Silchar in Assam and terminating in Porbandar in Gujarat will be renamed as NH-27 and the North-South corridor starting from Srinagar and terminating in Kanyakumari will be renumbered NH-44.

Officials said that the primary NHs running along the north-south and eastwest directions will be predominantly double digit for better identification by commuters. In case of NHs with even numbers, the number will increase from east to west and similarly in case of the odd number NHs, the numbers will increase from north to south.

Source: Times Of India By Dipak Kumar Dash National highway numbers to change, stretches to be longer