Highway Maintenance Strengthening Transparency and Accountability

India’s vast highway network is both an asset and a responsibility. While constructing thousands of kilometers of highways is an engineering achievement, ensuring their upkeep requires vigilance, transparency, and advanced technology. Network Survey Vehicles (NSVs) provide the perfect blend of innovation and preventive vigilance, bringing objectivity and accountability to road asset management. National Highway Authority of India has established a robust framework for asset management and this account sums up the advantages of Network Survey Vehicles

India has the second-largest road network in the world. In the last decade, the country has aggressively built new highways, adding several thousand kilometres to its network. While constructing roads at this scale is a challenge, the larger and more enduring challenge lies in maintaining these assets in serviceable condition over their entire life cycle while minimising costs and ensuring road safety.

Challenges

The first challenge lies in defining acceptable pavement conditions. The Indian Roads Congress (IRC) and other government agencies provide guidelines on permissible levels of pavement distress, including roughness, cracks, potholes and rutting. These benchmarks are the foundation for determining whether a highway section needs maintenance or rehabilitation.

The second challenge is monitoring the network with accuracy. Traditionally, project engineers used manual inspections and visual surveys. While adequate for small stretches, these methods are slow, costly and subjective. They cannot deliver reliable data for network-level management. Inaccuracies often lead to disputes, delayed decisions and in some cases, premature or unnecessary expenditures.

Globally, countries have adopted advanced technologies such as vehicle-mounted laser profilers, sensors and high-resolution cameras to monitor pavements objectively and at scale. Inspired by these practices, India adopted Network Survey Vehicles (NSVs) as part of its highway management strategy.

Subjectivity in evaluation not only undermines the credibility of reports but also affects the timely initiation of maintenance activities. In cases where assessments are disputed or delayed, road users ultimately bear the consequences in the form of deteriorating road quality and compromised safety. Such challenges highlight the urgent need for a transparent and technology-driven approach.

The adoption of NSVs represents not only an improvement in engineering practice but also a significant stride in preventive vigilance. By creating a system where road conditions are measured scientifically and communicated transparently through digital platforms, NHAI has been able to curb malpractices, enforce accountability and enhance public trust in the management of national highways.”

Advantages of NSVs

The adoption of NSVs has introduced a range of strategic benefits that significantly enhance both vigilance and asset management capabilities.

Comprehensive and Objective Road Assessment

NSVs capture extensive data in one survey including IRI (ride quality), surface distresses (cracks, potholes, rutting), pavement texture, geometry and GPS-based geo-referencing. These capabilities produce a complete, objective snapshot of road conditions and infrastructure compliance. The ability to generate panoramic visual records and Laser-based measurements ensures that even details like lane markings and drain widths are scrutinized.

Accuracy, Reliability, and Transparency

Using laser-based 3D systems, NSVs detect cracks smaller than 1 mm with precision. Each data point is timestamped and geo-tagged, guaranteeing consistent, repeatable, and verifiable monitoring. This removes subjective bias, enhances transparency and underpins robust vigilance mechanisms across the highway network.

Efficiency and Timeliness

 In contrast to slow manual surveys (20–80 km/day), NSVs can cover up to 300 km/day at normal highway speeds (30–80 km/h). The rapid data processing workflow — raw data within 48 hours and final reports in 10 days — ensures maintenance needs are identified and addressed quickly before problems escalate. This shift turns condition monitoring into a real-time management tool.

Strengthened Accountability

Updated NSV reporting benchmarks pavement conditions against contractual thresholds. When a deficiency crosses the stipulated limit, automated notices are issued via the NHAI Data Lake and contractors/cells must upload action-taken reports into the same system. This closed-loop transparency significantly enhances contract compliance and oversight.

Support for Data-Driven Governance

All NSV data is streamed into NHAI’s AI-powered Data Lake and RAMS platform. This digital integration enables advanced analytics, forecasting and predictive maintenance — shifting governance from reactive responses to long-term, evidence-driven strategy.

Addressing the Issue

In 2019, the Government of India mandated the use of NSVs for pavement evaluation. Surveys are required at three stages of a project — during construction, after completion and at regular intervals during operation.

To process and analyse survey data, NHAI developed the Road Asset Management System (RAMS), which includes modules such as:

• Pavement Management System (PMS) – for analyzing pavement condition and recommending maintenance.
• Bridge Management System – for monitoring structures.
• Traffic Information System – for traffic and safety-related data.

Despite this robust framework, shortcomings emerged in implementation:

• Lack of dedicated ownership: Surveys were initially assigned to field units and consultants across the country, leading to non-uniform methodologies and reduced reliability.
• Delay in report acceptance: Reports often took two to six months to be finalised, making them less useful for timely maintenance.
• Limited utility: Even accepted reports were not always linked to immediate rectification, diluting their value.

Revamped NSV Framework

To overcome these challenges, NHAI introduced significant reforms:

• Creation of a dedicated NSV Cell at NHAI HQ, staffed with technical experts and Assistant Advisors
• Adoption of laser-based 3D NSV technology, capable of detecting cracks as fine as 1 mm with minimal human intervention.
• Division of India into five zones, with agencies appointed directly by HQ to ensure consistency.
• Provision of office space and power supply by NHAI to agencies, minimising chances of manipulation.
• Strict timelines for data: raw data to be submitted within 48 hours and final reports within 10 working days.
• Enhanced reporting formats, ensuring direct comparison with contract thresholds and enabling immediate rectification.

These measures transformed NSVs into not just a monitoring mechanism but a powerful instrument of preventive vigilance.

Results and Way Forward

The revamped NSV project was formally launched in June 2024, with a target of surveying approximately one lakh kilometres of the national highway network under Phase I. This was a landmark initiative in India’s journey towards transparent and technology-driven highway maintenance.

The first cycle of surveys under Phase I has been successfully completed. The exercise produced highly reliable, geo-referenced data on pavement conditions across large stretches of highways. Distresses such as rutting, cracks, potholes and roughness were captured with a level of accuracy that was not possible with earlier manual methods. Importantly, the data clearly identified sections requiring rectification and immediate intervention.

One of the most transformative aspects has been the automation of the communication process. Earlier, inspection findings had to pass through multiple layers of manual reporting, often leading to delays, inconsistencies or subjectivity. Under the revamped system, the deficiencies identified by the NSVs are now directly fed into the NHAI Data Lake system, where notices to contractors and concessionaires are generated automatically. At the same time, field units are required to upload Action Taken Reports (ATRs) on the same platform. This has created a closed-loop arrangement wherein deficiencies are not only identified but also tracked until rectification is confirmed. This reform has revolutionised the entire process of highway maintenance within NHAI, making it faster, more transparent and significantly more accountable.

Encouraged by the tangible benefits achieved under Phase I, the Government of India has approved Phase II of the NSV project, which will cover the remaining stretches of the NHAI network. This expansion is a crucial step towards achieving 100% coverage of national highways under technology-enabled monitoring.

Moreover, NHAI has decided that the NSV-based monitoring framework will not remain limited to newly constructed or selected stretches alone. The scope has been broadened to include all highways under Operation and Maintenance (O&M) contracts, thereby bringing the entire national highway network under this system. This decision marks a significant milestone, as it ensures that every part of the network — whether newly built, tolled, or maintained under O&M contracts — will be subjected to uniform, objective and technology-driven evaluation.

Future Outlook

The extension of NSV surveys to the entire highway network will establish a national-level digital inventory of road conditions, continuously updated at defined intervals. Such a comprehensive system will not only support timely rectification but will also serve as a reliable database for long-term planning, budgeting and performance evaluation. In addition, the integration of NSV data with advanced analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the Data Lake will enable predictive maintenance strategies, shifting the focus from reactive to preventive care of assets.

The successful implementation of this system has demonstrated that technology-backed vigilance mechanisms are sustainable, scalable and replicable. Going forward, as the NSV framework matures and becomes embedded into NHAI’s governance, it is expected to serve as a model for adoption by State Governments, Municipal Corporations and other infrastructure agencies across the country.

 Inputs from NHAI