NHAI to Soon Introduce Road Ranking for Safety and Better Mobility

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is set to introduce road rankings periodically on numerous parameters such as safety management and ease of mobility. The aim is to provide safer and mobile roadways to the commuters of the country. The marquee projects of Delhi-Vadodara, Agra-Mumbai and Mumbai-Kolkata economic corridors will go through a process of audit and once the success rate is determined and defined, the same process will be extended to other highway projects.

According to various sector experts, this ranking procedure is in line with global operating practices. Expressways will be ranked based on their performance in areas of safety, accident response management, seamless mobility, and wayside amenities. However, one thing which is still not certain is whether the ranking will be done by the National Highways Authority of India or an external consulting organisation.

Talking of global practices,the European Road Assessment Program (EuroRAP) was introduced in four countries back in 2001. The tally was later extended to 20 countries. This program provides risk ratings and star ratings for major rural roads. The key objectives of this program are to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on roads through systematic risk testing that pinpoints crucial safety drawbacks. EuroRAP’s contributions are spread across three levels – providing a precise audit of the road network, interpret the sources of risk accurately, and illustrate the priorities for improvement correctly.

In India, the urban development ministry is responsible for ranking cleanliness of cities, which has sparked competition among civic authorities. The NHAI also launched the ranking system for toll plazas in February. This move has been taken to address issues that impact highway commuters, such as ease of payment of toll, electronic toll, cleanliness and hygiene at toll plazas, behaviour of Toll Plaza staff, FASTag lane, wayside amenities, availability of ambulance and cranes in case of an accident or any other emergency. The NHAI also believe that the ranking system can create a competitive environment for providing outstanding service to highway users.

Another approach currently undergoing a trial is the free-flow or gantry-based tolling, which is used across the highways in Taiwan. This adept system could eliminate the toll gates completely. The electronic gantry based tolling will make use of RFID technology enabled FASTags for automatic deduction of toll amounts. But, the requisites of such a system would require a massive overhaul of the Indian Highways sector before talks of implementation can move any further.

The previous FY of 2017-18 was, in fact, extremely successful for the NHAI as well. The autonomous agency of the Government of India went on to bestow 150 projects covering 7,400 km worth Rs 1.22 trillion.

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