Road ministry to automate highway construction

The ministry of road transport and highways will soon adopt Automated & Intelligent Machine aided Construction (AIMC), including GPS aided motor grader, intelligent compactor and stringless paver, on pilot basis on some of its existing expressways to improve quality and enhance efficiency in highway construction.

In a daft circular dated december 16, 2024, the ministry has mandated certain section of identified expressways or access controlled highways to be built using AIMC following a positive feedback of the use of this technology for the first time in Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway Project by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

“It is decided to begin with adoption of AIMC in NH construction on Pilot basis in a few projects of expressways or access controlled national highways,” it said.


“In Schedule-B of such project should have the provision of automated and intelligent construction machineries such as GPS-aided Motor Grader to be used for earthworks, subbase and base and intelligent compaction roller - single drum or tandem vibratory roller to be used for soil or subbase or base layer compaction,” it added.

India has about 1.46 lakh km of National Highways network. Out of this, about 3000 km are high speed corridors and the vision is to construct another 45,000 km till 2047.

“Initially highways were constructed manually. Subsequently highway construction evolved to mechanized construction. Now with technological development and considering the availability of intelligent road construction machines, it is the right time to adopt Automated & Intelligent Machine aided Construction (AIMC),” the ministry said in a notification.

According to the notification, some of the benefits of AIMC include using digitized construction data to achieve high adherence to design specification, enhance efficiency and reduce wastage.

“Time bound construction without compromising quality of construction (smooth levelled and adequately and uniformly compacted surface), improved rideability, enhanced performance and longevity, increased productivity, real time documentation, better transparency and minimum human interventions are the other benefits,” it added.