The Highway Research Board of the Indian Roads Congress was inaugurated by Shri Raj Bahadur, Union Minister of Shipping and Transport on the 24th October, 1973. The Chairman of the Board Shri J.S. Marya, Director General (Road Development) and Additional Secretary to the Government of India in his welcome address stated that the Board in addition to advising the Government on road research programmes, will ascertain the nature and extent of the research required for the conditions prevailing in our country, co-relate the research information from different sources in India and abroad and commend priorities about various road research problems. It will also obtain feed back of research findings and evaluate the same, collect and disseminate results on research. The Chairman hoped that the importance and urgency of allocating more and assured funds for road research would be appreciated both at the Centre and in the States. Besides, this steps also are necessary for development of talent of the right type for research and for that, it would be necessary to create suitable incentives.

Shri Raj Bahadur, Union Minister of Shipping and Transport in his Inaugural Address commended the setting up of this Board under the aegis of IRC an all-India body of Highway Engineers. He appreciated the great need for research in the field of Highway Engineering since the investments involved are very high and are likely to go up even higher, in the future Five Year Plans. He hoped that the concentrated research on various aspects of Road Construction would be able to encourage the use of indigenous materials in road construction and develop more economical construction methods and help better development of roads in the country. Our country offers practically all kinds of terrain and climate and as such problems of all kinds are encountered in the field of highways. Besides this the traffic on our roads is of a heterogenous character which is seldom found in more advanced countries. The Minister hoped that the Highway Research Board would do its best to foster and promote and nurse research amongst the members of the professionals in the country and the near future provide valuable advice and solution to road construction problems to other countries. He agreed that all possible efforts should be made to man the research institutions by the right type of people and that arrangement should also be made for exchange of ideas between the field engineers and the research scientist.

Shri P.C. Bhasin, Secretary, Highway Research Board while proposing a vote of thanks to the Union Minister stated that at present there seems to be an inadequate appreciation of the fundamental fact that roads like other assets depreciate over a period of time and there is an urgent necessity for proper studies on life of our highways with a view to optimizing investments and fixing proper maintenance norms. The Indian Roads Congress has so far been co-ordinating the Road-research in the country but much more remains to be done for channelising the road research in the country but much more remains to be done for channelising the road research activities in the right direction in order to utilize the existing facilities without any duplication of effort and for achieving optimum benefits to provide the country with an efficient and durable road system at the most economical cost to meet the needs of the growing traffic and also to find economical ways of easing and controlling the flow of traffic on roads, preventing road accidents and minimizing the effects of those that do take place.

After the inaugural function, the Board held its First Meeting. It decided to set up a number of committees covering various areas of research.