Boss,this is the thing you are missing.........from your own link itself..........
(The roads carry about 65 percent of freight and 86.7 per cent of passenger traffic. Although National Highways constitute only about 2 percent of road network it carries 40 percent of the total road traff)
Are you really failing to understand that this a very big country? and when you take statistics like above you need to take the size of the country,geographical features,the commercial choices of people and the economic preferences of various state governments.(Remember this a Central government system unlike your Pakistan's Provincial system).India has got many states and each state may be interdependent or dependent on other state,and in such a situation you need to rely on interstate roads rather than highways.Nowonder this will reduce the burden of highways and will disappear from the above statistical figures.
(For example,if I want to go to MANGALORE from my place BANGALORE(both are in the same state) I will depend on state road rather than highways (National)because timewise, geographically and economically that's only viable for me).
Moreover in states like NorthEast states,where nature's crests and troughs are more,you simply can't have highways.You may not even have good roads there because of many factors like in accessibility,adverse weather conditions etc.
Highways do good when you transport commodities or passengers from one state to another,for fast and easy access,but you can't have highways each and everywhere you like to build it.This is country that is densly populated and the government/s has/have to relocate people in such a case.Despite that we have got very high quality roads.
I would invite you to have a travel by our Bangalore Pune road . You will definitely likeit and might even come back and edit what all you have posted earlier.. ...........No personal offence ...... :)
(For ex:If I want to go to Mumbai from Bangalore,if no flight ticket is available ,then m,my choice is highway). :)
You seem to ignore ground realities and beat around the bush for obvious reason and that is serious comprehension....
When a big country like India only have 2 percent highways then that speaks tons of volumes...... forget how yopu are going to get from one mega slum to another, the rate at which you are progressing you won't need roads or highways you will use star trek transponders. :D So what part of the report is so hard to comprehend the 2 percent of highways part or 40 percent traffic on highway?