The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to undertake assessment and ranking of all the highways in the country, in an attempt to improve the quality of roads and provide better services to highway commuters.
“The assessment audit and ranking of the national highways is aimed to take corrective recourse, wherever needed, to improve the quality and provide higher level of service to highway commuters,” read a press release.
The assessment parameters will be based on different international practices and studies for benchmarking highway performances in Indian context, it added. “The criteria for the assessment have been broadly categorised in three main heads: highway efficiency (45 per cent), highway safety (35 per cent) and user services (20 per cent).”
On the basis of the results, the authority will further do a comprehensive analysis and decide on measures required to enhance service quality.
Other important parameters include operating speed, access control, time taken at toll plaza, road signages, road markings, accident rate, incident response time, crash barriers, illumination, availability of Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS), etc.
In addition, parameters such as the functionality of structures, provision for grade separated intersections, cleanliness, plantation, wayside amenities and customer satisfaction, will also be considered while conducting the assessment.
This would help in identifying and filling gaps of design, standards, practices, guidelines, and contract agreements for other NHAI projects, stated the release.
“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,” it added.