Do you know why milestones along the road have different colours?

We all cross milestones, literally at some or other time. Be it a road trip with friends, family, or just crossing borders of states, we all have seen milestones by the roadside on our journey. But have you ever thought about why they are coloured differently? 

They are coloured stones on the side of a highway or roads that help us track our journey’s distance with the place’s name mentioned on it. 

India has a road network of 58.98 lakh, and it is constituted of national highways, state highways, and village roads.

Let’s decode each colour on the milestones:

Yellow strips:

The yellow-coloured milestones signify you are on a national highway. India has a 151,019km long national highway network as of 2021. They connect different cities of different states.

Green strips:

The green-coloured milestones signify you are on a state highway. India has a 176,166 km long state highway network as of 2016. They connect different cities of a state.

Blue or black and white strips:

The blue or black and white strips signify you are inside a city or on a district road. India has a district road network of 561,940 km at present.

Orange strips:

The orange-coloured milestones signify you are on a rural road. The network stands at 3.93 lakh km in length. Rural roads were built under Jawahar Rozgar Yojna (JRY) and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY).