Drones to be used for monitoring highway projects from DPR stage

CHENNAI: To ensure the time-bound execution of all National Highway projects, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to use drones to record videos of the progress of all highway projects from the stage of preparation of Detailed Project Reports to construction, operation and maintenance (O&M).

NHAI has been using drones since June 2021 to prepare monthly video reports on the progress and O&M of the under-construction projects. Now it will keep track of the project from the preliminary DPR stage itself.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued on Monday for the NHAI to engage agencies to record NH’s drone imagery during the DPR, construction and O&M stages. The NHAI has empanelled two service providers for the Drone Analytics Monitoring System (DAMS) to enable remote tracking and monitoring.

In this system, the high-resolution imagery collected will be reconstructed and analysed to identify change detection on various key parameters using AI and machine-learning algorithms and demonstrate the output on a dashboard under 4 suites – under construction, O&M, plantation and road safety.

“DAMS will enable NHAI to optimise the utilisation of data, providing dynamic updates and generating actionable insights through reports and dashboards. It aims to help decision-makers and engineers to manage the land covering geographical and surveying spatial data,” the RFP document said.

NHAI now intends to standardise the outcome of drone imagery to enable remote tracing and monitoring of projects by use of AI/ ML systems. “Accordingly, NHAI intends to empanel agencies for recording/conducting drone imagery of NHs during the DPR, construction and O&M stages,” the RPF reads.

The drones proposed should be as per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the operator should have a drone pilot license.