What is the golden quadrilateral? Mention any two ways in which it will help in the economic development of the country.

Hint: The Golden Quadrilateral project was planned in 1999. It was completed in 2012 and is managed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) which comes under the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways.

Complete Answer: The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) is a network of national highways that acts as a linkage for many major industrial, agricultural and cultural hubs of India. It derives its name because it forms a quadrilateral, which is a shape. It connects or links four major metro cities of India i.e Delhi in the North, Kolkata in the East, Mumbai in the West and Chennai that lies in the South. Many other cities are connected by this network. These include cities like Ahmedabad, Dhanbad, Bengaluru, Surat, Balasore, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Gandhinagar, Jaipur, Kanpur, Durgapur, Pune, Bodhgaya, Kolhapur, Ajmer, Udaipur, Vizag, Allahabad, Varanasi, Agra, Mathura, and Vadodara. The major aim of these superhighways is to ease up the travelling process. It helps in reducing the distance and saves time. It boosts the economy by:
Firstly, it enables development in smaller towns concerning industrial and job growth because it provides access to markets. Secondly, because of improved transportation, the farmers can send their produce from the agricultural lands to big cities ensuring lesser wastage.

Note: It is the largest highway project in India at 5,846 kilometres, and also the fifth-longest in the world. It consists of four- and six-lane express highways. These were built at a value of ₹600 billion.