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Art 2005 DB KRR
Art 2005 DB KRR
Art 2005 DB KRR
K. Ramachandra Rao
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, N. Delhi – 110 016
Abstract
India has a huge road network (33 lakh km) with a high asset value of (Rs. 3 lakh crore). So
far the focus of the road agencies in India (Public Works Departments, and National
Highway Authority of India) was on the creation of more road assets with maintenance and
management of the existing roads as low priority. However, if these roads are expected to
offer a good service over its life cycle, then there is a need for periodic maintenance. In order
to make this happen significant budgetary allocations need to be made. Optimal utilization of
resources can be achieved through a good Decision Support System (DSS) that produces
meaningful information on how and when to maintain a particular section of a road. This
paper tries to identify the objectives based on the needs of the road agencies. Moreover, it
establishes that a GIS based Road Information System is a small step forward in the
problem context.
INTRODUCTION
Since independence the main focus of the road agencies in India was to build new roads and increase
road lengths and augment capacity in order to provide mobility and accessibility to the road users. In
the process over 33 lakh km of road length was achieved. Implementation of National Highway
Development Programme (NHDP) is further augmenting the capacity. In monetary terms the value of
the created road assets is more than Rs 3 lakh crores. This gives an indication of value of the road
assets that India has created over the past several years. So far the focus of road agencies was on
creation of road assets with maintenance and management as low priority. As the roads tend to age
and deteriorate with age, the assets need to be maintained for getting a good quality of service. The
capital flows may cease to come after some time, where the focus would be solely on maintaining and
rehabilitation of these assets.
All most all the road agencies in India are till now following pre-determined norms for maintenance
and management of roads. Based on the category of the road the cycle lengths were fixed for
renewals irrespective of the actual condition of the road. In the process some road sections may be
renewed much earlier than it is required based on its condition and other roads may be delayed
because of the more traffic and usage This kind of untimely maintenance to the road sections cause
faster deteriorating of the assets. Further budget tightening and increasing demands will put pressure
on agencies to allocate money for maintenance in a more judicious manner.
Today vision of the most of the road agencies in India is to create and maintain “Safe and Efficient
Road System” In order to achieve such a Vision, road agencies need to have systematic processes
and procedures, which would enable them to take decisions based on the information available. They
need to have complete asset management framework driven by the Vision, Policies, Goals and
Objectives. Having realized this, can we achieve this over night? The answer to this is no. Various
steps need to be climbed before reaching top most step.
With the recent advances in information technology (IT), powerful computers and sophisticated
analytical tools and techniques has opened doors for making it possible to manage information i.e.
data gathering, processing, analyzing, storing, retrieving and communicating enormous quantities of
data and generate meaningful information for use in decision making and made the road asset
maintenance management a feasible solution.
This paper is presented in five sections. First section gives the introduction. Second section gives the
details of management systems for road agencies. An approach for establishing information systems
is given in the next section. In section 4 the approach to data design is elaborated. Section 5 gives the
features of GIS, which can be adopted for road asset management. Lastly the conclusions are
presented at the end.
Based on the purpose it serves, the Management Systems for road Agencies can be differentiated
into Information Systems and Decision-Support Systems
Information Systems collects, organizes and stores data of the road network, where as Decision
Support Systems also known as executive Information systems comprise applications and modules
which have the ability to process data and produce its users in strategic planning, tactical planning,
project preparation and operations with decision oriented information. And also have ability to perform
“What If “analysis.
The table below presents type of systems and the objective it serves for a typical road agency.
Challenge lies in selecting appropriate system that fit for purpose.
Having appreciated that in order to achieve the road agencies Vision to provide “Safe and Efficient
Road Network System”, which is well maintained and managed, means they are looking for a
complete asset management solution. This is possible by following a Stage Wise Approach (Figure 1)
Road Asset Management System is one that road agencies have to target for. To reach there
successfully it has to pass thorough the Stages as explained in above paragraphs. Once decided to
adopt such a system in staged manner, each stage has to stabilise itself before going to the next
stage. Stabilization here means that organization start using the system in its day-to-day work by its
users and has all the support required; like skills, manpower, systems and processes are in place.
Change in organization culture is also an important element. Suitable change management
procedures need to be adopted to manage the transition from legacy systems to computer systems.
Training to the users is one of the important component of the change management. Management
should ensure all the parallel systems should come to an end and only one systems is running. This
way each stage requires sufficient time to stabilize itself and become a routine activity in the
organization. Thus it is recommended to adopt a stage wise approach to Road Asset Maintenance
and Management.
The first step towards implementing Road Information Systems (RIS) is by establishing a system that
has data elements clearly defined for the purpose and keeping in view the integration requirements of
the various stages that forms the whole system. In the next section a detailed discussion on this
approach is presented.
Designing an appropriate data model is highly essential to any computerized systems. All data
elements have to be very clearly identified before proceeding further. Any missing data may
compromise the whole exercise but on the contrary any additional data proves costly. It should be
noted that the cost of data acquisition is likely to be the most expensive aspect of implementing and
operating a highway management system. Annual data collection costs are much higher than the cost
of purchasing the computer hardware on which runs. Hence an appropriate and suitable data model is
a backbone for an integrated system.
The outputs from a system are produced from a combination of data and models. Thus, definition of
the outputs will determine the data items that need to be collected and stored within the system. The
choice of models will also influence data requirements, since models combine data items and
parameters, using pre-defined algorithms and relationships, to produce further data items.
The following criteria should, therefore, be considered when selecting data items:
Data model would differ depending on the specific model considered. Thus, the appropriate
combination of model and data in a particular situation must be determined using the criteria defined
above. A typical data model that used in most of the highway management software’s is shown in
Figure 2.
Long Term
Road Typical Data for Road Assets Strategic
Inventory Road Plan
Through the use of GIS technology the problems in traditional system pertaining to road information
like difficulty in archival of paper printed road maps, voluminous and scattered data, non-uniform, and
not up-to-date, difficulty in information access for the map features can be solved.
Road Agencies need to establish statewide up-to-date digital database of roads and such a system
thus facilitates accuracy and efficiency in monitoring, planning and management and also forms
backbone for the subsequent systems and overall development of the Road Network. Implementation
can be done in phase wise where road agencies can go for some select districts first phase and later
can be adopted for entire state. Other option is to go for a select road network say Core Road
Network in a first Phase and later for the rest of the road network.
• GIS technology has capabilities and potential to offer solutions to Road Agencies
requirements through two basic building blocks i.e. Spatial and Non Spatial data
• Spatial Data Creation (Figure 3)
- SOI Maps & Traditional Road maps
- Digitization of spatial layers from the base maps
- Collation of the data to a uniform scale and projection system
- Updated data of the road network, village points through satellite imageries
- Feature Coding of various objects- Bridges, villages
- Dynamic segmentation of roads at suitable interval (say 1km)
Spatial Data
It is important that Road Agencies have to ensure certain key pre-requisites before taking this first
step in order to gainfully develop the system.
CONCLUSIONS
Time has come for road agencies to adopt computerizing systems to ensure effective road asset
management. Has explained this objective in both feasible and achievable with clarity of purpose,
requisite commitment and well-informed decision-making, regarding system strategies and
implementation framework. Road map to the Asset Management Systems has been discussed. GIS
capabilities are very well established in private market and services of those can effectively used to
develop Road Information Systems, but the objective, scope and expected usages of the
computerised Information Systems are certain decision responsibilities of road managers, which can
neither be delegated nor sharked from.
References
2. Institutional Development Strategy Study- West Bengal State Roads Project, Consultancy
Project by Tata Consultancy Services, 2004
3. Institutional Development Strategy Study- Uttar Pradesh State Roads Project Final Report,
Tata Consultancy Services, 2004