The National Highways Act 1956

National Highways are the backbone of road transportation in India and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is the largest land acquisition agency in the country. On an average, it acquires around 10,000 hectares land a year and disburses Rs 10,000 crore as compensation. The National Highways Act 1956 is a complete code and a special Act. Although there is hardly any lawyer who has not been approached by expropriated owner, whose land is acquired under the Act, there is hardly any commentary on the 'Land Acquisition under the National Highways Act', With 400+ pages, the commentary relies upon 300+ judgments (reported and unreported) on the subject (covering various HCs and the SCI). The Commentary covers the void in the area and would be highly useful to judges, practicing advocates and academicians interested in this field.

Committee Serial No. 84-16.

This new, expanded edition brings the story of the Interstates into the twenty-first century. It includes an account of the destruction of homes, businesses, and communities as the urban expressways of the highway network destroyed large portions of the nation’s central cities. Mohl and Rose analyze the subsequent urban freeway revolts, when citizen protest groups battled highway builders in San Francisco, Baltimore, Memphis, New Orleans, Washington, DC, and other cities. Their detailed research in the archival records of the Bureau of Public Roads, the Federal Highway Administration, and the U.S. Department of Transportation brings to light significant evidence of federal action to tame the spreading freeway revolts, curb the authority of state highway engineers, and promote the devolution of transportation decision making to the state and regional level. They analyze the passage of congressional legislation in the 1990s, especially the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), that initiated a major shift of Highway Trust Fund dollars to mass transit and light rail, as well as to hiking trails and bike lanes. Mohl and Rose conclude with the surprising popularity of the recent freeway teardown movement, an effort to replace deteriorating, environmentally damaging, and sometimes dangerous elevated expressway segments through the inner cities. Sometimes led by former anti-highway activists of the 1960s and 1970s, teardown movements aim to restore the urban street grid, provide space for new streetcar lines, and promote urban revitalization efforts. This revised edition continues to be marked by accessible writing and solid research by two well-known scholars.

Introduction -- People before highways: stopping highways, building a regional social movement -- Battling desires: (re)defining progress -- Groundwork: imagining a highwayless future -- Planning for tomorrow not yesterday: "we were wrong"--New territory--city-making, searching for control -- Making victory stick: new dreams, new plans, new park

Examines the construction of the interstate highway system.