The great highway from Sonargaon in Bengal to the north-west, later called the Grand Trunk Road, was rebuilt and extended in the 16th century by:

The great highway known today as the Grand Trunk (GT) Road was rebuilt and extended by Sher Shah Suri (ruled 1540-1545), running from Sonargaon in Bengal to the north-west of the empire.

History of the road:

• An ancient route across north India, called the "Uttarapatha" (northern road), had existed since the time of the Mauryas and even earlier.
• Sher Shah rebuilt and improved this route, and it came to be called the "Sadak-e-Azam" or "Shah Rah-e-Azam" (the Great Road).
• It ran from Sonargaon (near Dhaka, in present-day Bangladesh) through Agra, Delhi and Lahore to the Indus region.
• The British later improved it and called it the "Grand Trunk Road".
• Today, it runs from Chittagong and Kolkata through north India to Amritsar, Lahore, Peshawar and Kabul, and parts of it form national highways in India.

Facilities along the road:

• Sher Shah built sarais (rest houses) at regular intervals of about two kos (about 8 km); there were about 1,700 sarais on his roads.
• Each sarai had separate lodgings for Hindus and Muslims, wells, and food for travellers and animals.
• Trees were planted along the roads to give shade.
• The sarais also served as posts for the "dak chowki" (postal system), where horses were changed for messengers.
• Many sarais grew into market towns.

Other roads built by Sher Shah:

• From Agra to Burhanpur.
• From Agra to Jodhpur and Chittor.
• From Lahore to Multan.

Importance:

• The roads helped trade, communication and the movement of armies.
• They united different parts of the empire.

Sher Shah's other reforms:

• He reorganised the revenue system on the basis of measurement of land.
• He issued well-made silver and copper coins.
• He maintained law and order and made local headmen responsible for crimes in their areas.

In literature:

Rudyard Kipling described the GT Road in his novel "Kim" as "a river of life".

Why not the other options?

• ✗Akbar, Humayun and Ibrahim Lodi did not rebuild this road.