The Central road making agency NHAI has received “overwhelming response” from many reputed institutes including all the IITs for the purpose of adopting road and highway stretches to be used as a field of study for faculty, researchers and familiarise the students of the institute with the latest trends in industry and suggest the relevant performance parameters and innovations.
In line with its vision to provide world-class National Highway (NH) network and to create a bridge between technical Institutions and Industry, the National Highways Authority of India had introduced a unique initiative to associate with these reputed Technical Institutes and Engineering colleges to adopt nearby stretches of National Highways, on voluntary basis under Institution Social Responsibility.
All the Indian institute of Technology IITs (including IIT Roorkee, IIT Bombay, IIT Varanasi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur), 26 NITs and 190 other reputed engineering colleges have agreed to collaborate. Out of which, about 200 institutes have already signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Over 300 institutes are expected to collaborate to adopt NH stretches.
Under this initiative, the partner institutes will have to study improvement prospects in Road Safety, maintenance, riding comfort, removal of choke points, black spots and usage of new technologies on the adopted stretches and give suitable suggestions to NHAI.
The institutes are also encouraged to associate with the Consultants/NHAI during conceptualisation, design and project preparation of new projects and suggest the relevant performance parameters and innovations based on experience specific to the local climate, topography and resource potential for better socio economic outcome.
The areas of collaboration for improving the efficiency of existing highways are improvements in safety provisions by removing existing deficiencies and offering potential solutions to old recurring problems based on local experience; improvements in continual maintenance of the stretches and improving the riding comfort through cost effective measures based on innovative technologies.
Other areas of study are localised solutions for removal of congestion points and thereby increasing the average traffic speed; viability of new wayside amenities for road users based on the existing traffic pattern and user expectations etc.
“NHAI envisions to provide a world class NH network to meet the Nation’s requirements by building large number of mega highway projects in a cost-effective manner. Adoption of NH stretch by an Institute would facilitate stakeholder engagement and help to mitigate the routine local problems such as traffic hindrance, congestion, and immediate identification of accident-prone sites and causes thereof,” said a NHAI official statement.