About NHAI:

• National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was constituted by an Act of Parliament in 1988 under the administrative control of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The authority became operational in 1995.
• NHAI has been set up as a Central Authority to develop, maintain and manage the National Highways entrusted to it by the Government of India.

Why in News?

The National Highways Authority of India, to improve the quality of roads, has decided to undertake performance assessment and ranking of the highways in the country.

Assessment Parameters

They are based on different international practices and studies for benchmarking highway performances in the Indian context and  have been broadly categorised in three main heads:

• Highway efficiency (45%)
• Highway safety (35%)
• User services (20%)

Additionally, important parameters like operating speed, access control, time taken at toll plaza, road signages, road markings, accident rate, incident response time, crash barriers, illumination, availability of Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS), functionality of structures, provision for grade-separated intersections, cleanliness, plantation, wayside amenities and customer satisfaction will also be considered while conducting the assessment.

What is the benefit?

• The score obtained by each Corridor in each of the parameters will provide feedback and corrective recourse for higher standards of operation, better safety and user experience to improve existing highways.
• This will also help in identifying and filling gaps of design, standards, practices, guidelines and contract agreements for other NHAI projects.