We have put a lot of emphasis on enhancing National Highways' quality, safety: Nitin Gadkari

He added, speaking on the occasion on Thursday, "We have taken measures to fix contractors' responsibility to enhance the quality of construction and also to improve transparency in our system."

Gadkari said that technology is a great enabler and adoption of Automated & Intelligent Machine-Aided Construction is a step in the right direction.

He stated, "We have achieved success in the Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway pilot project and soon we will implement this technology in other projects also."

Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Ajay Tamta said, "India has made remarkable strides in developing world-class roads and highways that have significantly enhanced our infrastructure. Every stakeholder plays a vital role in this transformation."

He added, "As we move forward, leveraging advanced technology such as sensors, satellites, and real-time monitoring will be key to accelerating progress. With continuous technological advancements, we are committed to aligning India's road infrastructure with Vision 2047 and taking our National Highway network to the world-class level."

V Umashankar, Secretary, MoRTH said, "The roads and highways that we construct today will serve our nation for many years to come. Therefore, time and quality of construction are the two critical parameters that we have been focusing on."

He added, "Compaction is one of the critical aspects of road construction and technology that is available today enables us to address the challenges related to compaction. I am sure that deliberations at this workshop will provide critical insights that will help us in adopting AIMC technology for the enhancement of National Highway construction."

In his welcome address, Vishal Chauhan, Member (Administration), NHAI emphasised that the inputs from this stakeholder's consultation workshop will contribute in transforming conventional NH construction methods into a data-driven approach by integrating 'Automated and Intelligent Machine-Aided Construction'(AIMC) technology. Also, Anil Choudhary, Member (Projects), NHAI, presented the brief on stakeholder consultation held during the workshop.

To enhance National Highway construction prowess by leveraging AIMC technology, NHAI organised the consultation workshop, to deliberate and provide suggestions to enhance the recently released draft policy for the 'Adoption of Automated & Intelligent Machine-aided Construction in National Highways Projects' by MoRTH.

NHAI is successfully implementing the pilot project of AIMC on the Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway, wherein Automated & Intelligent Machines such as GPS aided Motor Grader, Intelligent Compactor and stringless Paver have been used.

Based on evaluation of efficacy of AIMC demonstrated in this project, along with feedback from the project stakeholders and considering the international guidelines/specifications, NHAI will undertake adoption of AIMC for the construction of a few more Greenfield Expressways/Access-Controlled corridor projects.

The draft policy underlines various aspects and potential AIMC in transforming National Highway development across the country.

Senior officials from MoRTH, NHAI, National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, technology providers, concessioners, consultants, machine equipment manufacturers and other stakeholders were present on the occasion. (ANI)