new Delhi . The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, has decided to assess the efficiency of highways across the country as well as ranking them. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has taken this decision as part of efforts to make the roads better.
The objective of the assessment audit and ranking of National Highways is to ensure necessary improvements wherever required, so that their quality can be improved and passengers traveling on the highways can enjoy a pleasing journey.
The assessment criteria are based on various international practices or practices and studies aimed at setting standards of efficiency of highways in the Indian context. The criteria for assessment are mainly classified into three important parts: highway efficiency (45%), highway safety (35%) and user services (20%). Based on the findings of this assessment, the authority will conduct a comprehensive analysis and decide on the various necessary steps to be taken to enhance the overall quality of services.
Apart from this, several more important parameters will also be considered while assessing the speed of operations, control of access to vehicles from multiple directions, time taken at toll plazas, road indicators, road signs, accident rates, handling of an incident. These include time taken, crash barriers, lights, availability of advanced traffic management systems (ATMS), functionality of structures, hierarchical separate intersections, sanitation, plantations, roadside facilities and customer satisfaction.
The score achieved by each corridor on every criterion or scale will actually provide the necessary information for higher standards of operation, better safety and a better user experience and at the same time suggest corrective steps that can be taken to implement existing highways. It will only be possible to improve. This will also help in identifying and bridging flaws in design, standards, practices, guidelines and contractual agreements for other projects of NHAI.
The ranking of the corridor ie the corridor will be rapidly variable and the concessionaire / contractor / operator will get an opportunity to improve their ranking by improving the services available on that corridor. Apart from the overall ranking of all the corridors, separate rankings will also be done for BOT, HAM and EPC projects. This ranking process will ensure efficiency in operations as well as excellent maintenance of roads.
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