Mokokchung, February 20 (MTNews): The National Highway that pass through the heart of Mokokchung town has been a topic of discussion in recent times. Apart from the discussions surrounding the ongoing construction works along the National Highway or its quality, another point of discussion or doubt that often emerge is on the number of the highway. Some refer to it as NH-2 while others refer to it as NH-61. To settle the dilemma, Mokokchung Times enquired with the Executive Engineer of National Highways, Mokokchung Division, on the “official” number of the Highway and he informed that it is now in fact numbered NH-2, while it was previously numbered NH-61. The change was made in the year 2010 by the Ministry of Road Transport and National Highways, Government of India.
Many individuals as well as organizations still refer to the Highway as NH-61, so much so that the office of the Executive Engineer, National Highways, Mokokchung Division often have to insert the words “erstwhile NH-61” within brackets while referring to NH-2.
It may be mentioned that NH-2, erstwhile NH-61, runs from Dibrugarh in Assam to Tuipang in Mizoram, and passes through Mokokchung, Wokha and Kohima in Nagaland.
On 28 April 2010, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways officially published a new numbering system for the National Highways network in the Gazette of the Government of India. It is a systematic numbering scheme based on the orientation and the geographic location of the highway. This was adopted to ensure more flexibility and consistency in the numbering of existing and new national highways.
As per the new numbering system:
All north-south oriented highways will have even numbers increasing from the east to the west.
All east-west oriented highways will have odd numbers increasing from the north to the south.
All major Highways will be single digit or double digit in number.
Three-digit numbered highways are secondary routes or branches of a main highway. The secondary route number is prefixed to the number of the main highway. For example, 244, 344 etc. will be the branches of the main NH44.
Suffixes A, B, C, D etc. are added to the three-digit sub highways to indicate very small spin-offs or stretches of sub-highways.
National Highway 2 is a national highway in India that runs from Dibrugarh in Assam to Tuipang in Mizoram. This national highway starting from its junction with NH-15 near Dibrugarh in the State of Assam connecting Sibsagar and Amguri in the State of Assam, Mokokchung, Wokha and Kohima in the State of Nagaland, Imphal and Churachandpur in the State of Manipur, Seling, Serchhip, Lawngtla and terminating at Tuipang in the State of Mizoram. This national highway is 1,325.6 km (823.7 mi) long. Before renumbering of national highways, NH-2 was variously numbered as old national highways 37, 61, 39, 150 and 54.
NH2 connects Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Amguri, Mokokchung, Wokha, Kohima, Imphal, Churachandpur, Seling, Serchhip, Lawngtlai and Tuipang.
Imphal to Kohima stretch of National Highway 2 is part of Asian Highway 1 and Asian Highway 2.