India to give Ranking to its roads, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), But what about the roads where 90 % vehicles move?

Ministry of surface transport Ministry has initiated a move to rank national high way. Indeed a good for nearly 1,50,000 long National Highway. But what about the rest of India, state highways, district highways and other roads where more than 90 % traffic runs. In 2015 Indian roads killed 1,48,007 people and economic loss of USD 25 Billion. It is good to have a nice and wonderful national and express highway, stress should also be done on the roads where 90 % of the vehicle runs.

And according to a Planning Commission report, which conducted research on economic loss on India roads between 2001-2003 estimate an annual loss of USD 10 Billion.. which according to a study conducted in 2013 by International Road Federation the annual loss increased to USD 20 Billion, Last year the economic losses could be to the tune or USD 25 Billion.. it is increasing every year--faster than our GDP.. 

On  July 6 India announced to have performance assessment of its National Highway and Expressways and rank it. The assessment audit and ranking of the National Highways was aimed to take corrective recourse, wherever needed, to improve the quality and provide a higher level of service to highway commuters, The Surface and Transport Ministry stated

The assessment parameters would be based on different international practices and studies for benchmarking highway performances in the context of India. The criteria for the assessment have been broadly categorised in three main heads--

1)  Highway Efficiency (45%)

2)  Highway Safety (35%)

3) User Services (20%). 

On the basis of the outcome of the assessment, the authority will undertake a comprehensive analysis and decide on the level of intervention required to enhance the overall service quality.

Additionally, important parameters like operating speed, access control, time is taken at the toll plaza, road signages, road markings, accident rate, incident response time, crash barriers, illumination, availability of Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS), the functionality of structures, provision for grade-separated intersections, cleanliness, plantation, wayside amenities and customer satisfaction will also be considered while conducting the assessment.

 The score obtained from each Corridor on each of the parameters would provide feedback and corrective recourse for higher standards of operation, better safety and user experience to improve existing highways. This will also help in identifying and filling gaps of design, standards, practices, guidelines and contract agreements for other NHAI projects.

The ranking of the corridors will be dynamic and the concessionaire/ contractor/ operator will get the opportunity to improve upon their ranking by improving the services on that corridor.

 Apart from overall ranking of all the corridors, separate ranking for BOT, HAM and EPC projects will also be done. This process of ranking will bring out operational efficiency and ensure high-quality maintenance of roads.

BY Vijay Thakur, Special Representative, The Statesman, vijaythakurx@gmail.com