Technological Innovations to Improve Highway Operations

Highways have been the driving force behind the Indian economy. However, due to obsolete technology and crumbling road infrastructure, there is an urgent need to revamp the highways sector. Following this, the Government of India recently initiated a cluster project to revamp and modernise the country’s roads and highways.

Akhilesh Srivastava, Chief General Manager (CGM) of the IT & Highway Operations of the NHAI, is at the helm of the modernisation project. CGM Akhilesh Srivastava’s vision for the future of Indian national highways complements the government’s Digital India drive.

One of the most renowned and technologically-advanced projects under the cluster initiative is the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), which works with an RFID-encoded FASTag sticker. Special sensors in the ETC lanes on Toll plazas detect the stickers affixed to the vehicles using an automatic vehicle detection technology and deduct the taxable amount from the bank account linked to them. This has reduced the rate of traffic congestion at the plazas and made the tax payments more transparent.

He also is supervising several projects concerning the integration of the latest technology in highway operations, one of the most pronounced ones being the use of drones and remote sensing technologies such as LiDARs for the real-time monitoring of the ongoing highway projects. He has also initiated the Traffic Incident Management System to combat the issues and emergencies that people face due to overcrowding and congestion.

In order to take India’s modernisation projects to the global platform, CGM Srivastava will attend the 4th Annual Roads & Highways forum that is being hosted by the International Road Federation (Geneva) and the Marcus Evans Group at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore from April 09th – April 11th, 2018. He has been delegated to the event to join a panel of esteemed government officers in the construction industry from around the world.

Apart from that, Mr Srivastava has delivered the speeches in two-time slots on the April 09th. In the first slot, he has addressed the topic of One Belt One Road (OBOR) along with two other officers, following which he has also addressed the topic, "Highway Modernisation for Greater Effectiveness and Sustainability."

The Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC) – a tripartite committee set up by the government – conferred on Akhilesh Srivastava the Vishwakarma Award for Lifetime Achievement as a Public Officer for his contributions, such as ETC, to the highways sector.

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Aadhyakalyan completed her PG from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in 2008. she stories have previously been published in Writing Magazine and Best journals. she lives in Hyderabad, India."