NHAI to use spatial technology for building highways

The NHAI on Wednesday signed an agreement with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) and North East Centre for Technology Application and Research (NECTAR) to use spatial technology for monitoring and maintaining highways.

Entrusted with National Highways Development Project (NHDP) and others, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) aims to use multiple technologies to monitor construction progress, expedite project preparation, operation and maintenance and optimal management of assets.

"The use of satellite data and geo-spatial technology will be useful in providing inputs in highway and infrastructure projects for preparation of detailed project report, pre-feasibility status in new alignment, upgrade/road widening, monitoring of road segments under construction and Road Asset Management System," an official statement said.

Part of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), NRSC provides satellite data gleaned from ISRO and foreign satellites while NECTAR deploys unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to acquire aerial images for infrastructure planning.

In association with NRSC and NECTAR, NHAI will initially take up pilot projects and also set up a 24 x 7 technical cell to provide relevant project specific data to engineers, consultants, staff and others, the statement added.