National Highways Authority of India has signed MoUs with 200 technical institutes to encourage them for voluntary adoption of highway stretches for research. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has stated that NHAI has introduced an initiative to associate with reputed Institutes like IITs NITs and AICTE approved engineering colleges for mutual cooperation for the dissemination of respective expertise on civil/highway engineering on National Highway Projects.
As per this initiative, the institutes have been encouraged to adopt nearby stretches of national highways on a voluntary basis and those adopted stretches may be used as a field of study for faculty, researchers and to familiarise students of the institute with the latest trends in the industry.