DEVELOPMENT OF ROAD ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (RAMS) FOR SMART CITIES OF INDIA

Abstract

Urbanisation has paved the way for higher comfort levels and standards of living. In pursuit of these, the rural population continues to move rapidly to urban regions. More than a third of India’s population is now residing in urban areas, which is expected to be over 50% by 2050. It has provided people with better jobs, living standards, healthcare, and education while fostering social and economic development. Despite this, growing urbanisation has created several problems, such as lack of space, increase in energy (fuel) demand, environmental pollution, and associated health problems. Urban area development has been significantly aided by the transportation sector and vice versa. The development of smart transport infrastructure has ensured better connectivity across the country and supported other infrastructural developments for the nation’s overall economic and social welfare. The road infrastructure is one of the most complex and highly diversified of all other transport modes in urban regions. In India, urban roads constitute about 8.5% or 5.42 lakh km of the total road length. Road assets deteriorate with ageing, and reconstruction may not always be the sustainable solution while considering the impact of construction activities on the environment and the vast sum of public funds involved, which would otherwise be utilised for social welfare. Further, the decaying pavement performance and condition lead to problems like a hike in vehicular operating costs (VOC) for road users, increased vehicular emissions, and risk of road accidents. However, if coped with proper operations and timely maintenance, they are long-lived, and the adverse effects of pavement’s untimely deterioration are minimised. Therefore, there is a pressing need to overhaul the conventional practice, i.e., worst first, and opt for asset management practices that believe in the proper maintenance and management of pavements including all their assets immediately after construction. Asset management in the transportation sector is an extended and more holistic phenomenon of information and management systems being developed by transportation organisations, which usually focus on individual classes of assets (for example, bridges, tunnels, highway pavements, airport runways and ancillary road assets). The comprehensive framework, like an asset management system, integrates information and recommendations obtained from different tools at a common platform within the administration's scope. It promotes information-based decision-making for the management of road assets and a result-oriented (performance-based) approach.