With high-res cams, Network Survey Vehicles promise to improve Indian roads

The push for roads in India to be vastly improved as just received a shot in the arm with the deployment of Network Survey Vehicle (NSV) being made mandatory by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

In a statement, the NHAI has said that the decision of mandatory deployment of Network Survey Vehicle or NSVs has been taken in line with the agency's commitment to provide better roads to commuters. This decision is claimed to be enhancing the quality of the National Highways across the country. "Carrying out road condition survey using NSV on the National Highways has been made mandatory at the time of certifying completion of the project and every six months thereafter," the NHAI statement further said.

The Network Survey vehicles or NSVs use high resolution cameras to capture images of highways and they also come with several other technology and features onboard.

As PTI reported, the NSVs will help in collecting the required data to analyse the road conditions. This data will include road surface conditions, surface cracks, potholes and patches. Apart from that, the NSVs will also provide data insights related to the side drains, road furniture etc.

These data collected by the NSVs will be uploaded on NHAI's artificial intelligence based portal Data Lake. These data will be analysed by the Road Asset Management Cell (RAMS Cell) and assess the condition of the road to to decide on the maintenance work. As NHAI claims, these data will help the agency to maintain up to date asset inventory and road assets condition status.

The NSVs will not only deliver vital information on road network planning, providing relevant information on other aspects like development of road safety measures, etc. They will also assist in developing highway maintenance strategies, analysis of maintenance and selection of optimal maintenance regime, claimed NHAI.

India is one of the countries with alarming rate of road accidents that lead to a huge number of deaths every year. Besides that, many people are seriously injured due to the road accidents resulted by the poor quality roads. NHAI and the Indian government has been aiming to focus on the issue for quite some time. The latest announcement from the NHAI comes in that context only.