DPR on 50,000 km road projects to be prepared soon: Gadkari

The government will soon come out with detailed project reports (DPRs) to construct 50,000 km of highways including those in the Northeastern and hilly states, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.
"We will very soon come out with DPRs on 50,000 km of highway projects, which also includes Northeastern and hilly states. The government will use technology to get this work done as soon as possible," Gadkari said here after launching an integrated data collection system for highways.
Launching the data collection system, the Minister said such initiatives will be of immense use in preparing DPRs as they will have all the requisite data, like soil condition, road condition, curves etc.

"It should be used as a decision support system in strengthening, maintaining and upgrading National Highways," he added.
The system will compile information on road assets, condition of the pavements and traffic through use of laser technology.
The outcome of integrated data collection system will assist in developing an accurate and scientific maintenance planning mechanism and finalse road safety measures, Gadkari said.

The data collected will be stored and managed through a web-based application, which will be hosted in the public domain. The application, when fully developed, can be accessed by smart phones.
Information collected from this project will be useful for Transport Ministry, Finance Ministry, NHAI, State PWDs, Police departments, funding agencies, developers and citizens.

The development of Road Asset Management System (RAMS) for the National Highways along with collection of requisite data over 3,000 km of the pilot road network is underway as part of the Prime Minister's Digital India initiative, Gadkari said.
The data collection has started earlier this month from Nagpur on trial basis and it is expected that 150 km will be covered in one direction per day.
Complete baseline data for 3,000 km will be available by September 2015. Two years of time series data will be collected for 3,000 kms in 2016 and 2017 as part of this project.

Gadkari said that Ministry of Road Transport & Highways is working on a strategy to collect data for remaining 93,000 km of National Highways, which will be useful for monitoring and auditing maintenance and development work, particularly in inaccessible areas.
"We have also been working on developing Highway Radio and Highway Village along with engaging contractors from local areas for plantation, transplantation and maintenance of greenery along NHs," he added.