On Friday, 12th June 2020, the National Highways Authority of India announced that it has gone 'completely digital' with the introduction of a new cloud-based and Big Data Analytics Program-powered Artificial Intelligence.
NHAI 's entire project management process has been changed from manual to an online platform, in which complete project execution is carried out. Operations like 'time-line workflow' and 'alert system' were designed to optimize the said move, according to the press release
The organization will now be able to carry out all project paperwork, contract decisions, and approvals through the portal.
The portal will forecast the delays, likely disputes, and give advance warnings according to the press release. It will also promote accurate and timely decision-making because the program is likely to predict the financial effect of various alternatives based on historical evidence.
Because NHAI has a history of having a large number of arbitration cases pending, these disputes will now be minimized as Data Lake software has tracking provisions and ensures that work is conducted in a transparent manner within the deadlines. This will also allow for faster decision-making and ultimately diminish the chances of litigation in the future, the release said.
"The complete project documents and correspondences will be stored in digital format in the cloud-based ‘Data Lake’ linked with GIS tagging and Unique Project ID, so that the project data can be easily retrieved as and when required from any location," it added later.
The Data Lake would bring ground-breaking changes to NHAI with benefits such as no delays, fast decision-making, no issue of missing documents, and work from anywhere / anytime. This will improve accountability, as both officers and stakeholders related to the project will be able to see what is going on in real-time, which will lead to a collective performance assessment by the seniors.
“These disputes can be minimized as the Data Lake software has provisions to keep track and check on all these constraints and will ensure work is carried out within the deadlines in a transparent manner. As all processes are going to be portal-based, decision-making is going to be faster and will eventually diminish chances of litigation in the future," it said.
The full project records and correspondence will be stored in digital format in the cloud-based 'Data Lake' linked to GIS tagging and Unique Project ID, so that project data can be easily retrieved from any location as and when necessary. NHAI has already started extensive use of it by all contractors/concessionaires/consultants / authority engineers (AE)/independent engineers (IE) and project directors (PD)/regional officers (ROs). The e-Office module of NHAI is also incorporated into the network so that all correspondences can flow seamlessly from field units to HQ in a secure manner.
In the current Covid-19 pandemic scenario, when most of the organizations are facing serious challenges in working, NHAI employees are continuing their works undeterred and happily without any fear of physical contacts and touching of physical files. Rather, the lockdown period was used by NHAI to train its employees about using Data Lake.
