After plans to use satellites to monitor the green cover along national highways, the Government wants to tie up with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to use its drones, Bhuvan and Gagan, to map 96,000 kms of the highways to create a plan for road asset management.
Using ROMDAS, the most cost-effective and versatile data collection system, the Ministry of Highways plans to run high-tech GPS-fitted vehicles along highways to collect all road related data, including condition of pavements, weather and traffic conditions. The software is currently being used by at least 70 countries to collect road data.
“We need an updated and exhaustive database of our entire network, as it will help us plan our expansion projects in a more scientific manner,” said Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways. He was speaking at the National Workshop on Road Asset Management System (RAMS) for National Highways.
The Ministry also demonstrated a model of the high-tech vehicle, fitted with advanced data collection modules of ROMDAS along with support services to develop and implement a Geographic Information System which would map and store data on national highways.
Gadkari said that the software installed in the vehicles for RAMS will have the functionality to interface with the indigenous Bhuvan and Gagan satellite images.
“The data collected will be stored and managed through a web-based application which will be hosted in the public domain,” said Gadkari, at the demonstration.
“This kind of use of technology to study roads and create data will not just help us prepare our detailed project reports (DPRs) in half the time, it will also reduce the project development time which will result in big savings,” he said.
Funded by the World Bank, RAMS will assist in the accurate and scientific planning and finalising of road projects, maintenance of roads, executing road safety measures and development of the National Highways network in India.
Gadkari said that a robust data management system will also help them in identifying accident spots and dangerous curves along the national highways which result in over lakh deaths in road accidents annually. “Once we have identified the spots, then we can work towards corrective measures and thereby help in reducing the number of accidents,” he said.
“RAMS is the need of the hour for effective planning, construction, maintenance and financial management of highways,” said Raghav Chandra, chairman, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Chandra said that RAMS is being developed for the entire National Highways network in India bringing both public-funded and private-funded roads under one umbrella.
“Information collected from this project will be useful for Transport Ministry, Finance Ministry, NHAI, State PWDs, police departments, funding agencies, developers and citizens,” he said.
World Bank Country Director Onno Rulh said the world-class modern management system developed by India would be an effective tool to monitor the projects.
“Once we have mapped our national highways, we would extend the use of RAMS to our state highways and then to our village roads,” said Gadkari.
Work or take VRS, Gadkari warns babus
In a stern “perform or take VRS” warning to officials sitting on files, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said, “The world is ready to invest in India, especially in the highways sector, but we are not able to utilise our budgetary allocation. For work worth Rs5 lakh crore to get rolling, we need faster clearances and quick project report preparations. But there are officials sitting on files. Those who do not want to work, please take VRS... Performance audit will be conducted... Red-tapism will not be tolerated.” The Minister has set a goal of 100 km of road construction a day.