Indian Roads Thread

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tandav
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by tandav »

srin wrote:^^^
The biggest problem would be rocks, soil and debris falling down from the slope. It will need to be rebuilt every year, and we all know how that goes.
I'd rather we just do tunnelling on a mass-scale. It'd have the advantage of being all-weather and don't need to be rebuilt every year.
Obviously not suitable for unstable slopes/ cliffs but may be ok in mountain areas which either stable or can be stabilized well. Note such roads will be cheaper than cut mountain roads due to smaller amounts of material debris transport.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Kashi »

How much load can such roads carry? I thought in the above news report this is for tourism purposes.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by rahulm »

US firm admits to paying $1.1m bribe to NHAI
A Boston-based consultancy firm has admitted to the justice department of the United States that its officials paid bribe of $1.18 million (approximately Rs 6.7 crore) to NHAI officials between 2011 and 2015,
company's division for India operations and CDM India paid bribes to receive contracts from NHAI. "The bribes generally were 2-4% of the contract price and paid through fraudulent subcontractors, who provided no actual services and understood that payments were meant to solely benefit the officials,"
CDM Smith's division responsible for India and CDM, India, paid $25,000 to officials in Goa in relation to a water project contract.
An NHAI official said the matter will be probed to identify who all took bribe money from the company.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Singha »

Kashi wrote:How much load can such roads carry? I thought in the above news report this is for tourism purposes.
they are ok for clean rock cliffs only, where the concrete or iron beams can be anchored safely.

looking at the workers, they reflect the poorer folks working hard in the interior, not the well fed gleaming types of the metros along the coast.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Karthik S »

Road Transport Ministry Sanctions Over One Lakh Kilometres Of National Highways Across India

Road Transport Ministry Sanctions Over One Lakh Kilometres Of National Highways Across India
National Highway 544 between Erode and Coimbatore (Srikanth Ramakrishnan/Wikimedia Commons)
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) today (25 July) informed the Lok Sabha that 115,435km of National Highways (NHs) have been sanctioned in all the 35 states and union territories across India. Responding to a question raised by Shimla Member of Parliament Virender Kashyap, Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan said that of the total length sanctioned, 10,668km had been sanctioned in the north Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and the union territory of Chandigarh. Of this, Himachal Pradesh would be sanctioned 2,642km while Haryana would be sanctioned 2,641km. Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir would be sanctioned 2,769 and 2,601km respectively.

Maharashtra would get the lion’s share with 15,436km sanctioned while Chandigarh would get the bare minimum of 15km. The highest share among union territories would go to Andaman and Nicobar with 331km being sanctioned.

The share of all states and union territories (except Lakshadweep) is:

Image
https://swarajyamag.com/insta/road-tran ... ross-india
rahulm
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by rahulm »

In big hurry? No time to stop? Now, cruise through all toll plazas on national highways courtesy FASTag

A good move.

The article doesn't say whether the lane will be a 'drive through at speed' lane without a boom gate or a stop and proceed with boom gate lane.

We don't yet have a national registry of all vehicles in India to,track offenders. Neither do we have implementation of vehicle plate number standards so wiritng OCR algorithms to automatically detect multi lingual vehicle plates personalised and modified with 'Jai Maharashtra' , 'Maratha Kranti' , 'Dada', ARMY, Advocate, Doctor, OM SAI RAM, 786, trucks with damaged, illegible or worse no lnumber plates etc etc is not for the faint hearted.

However, until they penalise non tag holders severely for using the FASTag lane this isnt going to improve transit times for tag holders. For now, no change required and an electronic log of trips will be the benefits.

Our baboos just don't seem to to think through things fully. Wonder if it's intellect, willingness or both.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Singha »

harmonization of all RTOs and a national registry for vehicles is a big GST type reform on Gadkariji's agenda i believe.

eg vehicles stolen in other parts of india often end up re-registered in the north east hills states.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Sachin »

rahulm wrote:The article doesn't say whether the lane will be a 'drive through at speed' lane without a boom gate or a stop and proceed with boom gate lane.
I have a FasTag device on my vehicle and have used it for nearly 9 months. At present it is a boom which opens if the tag is found to be valid. But the awareness of this is very poor amongst the road users. Currently FasTag enabled lane may look empty (as ideally only the vehicles with the tag should use it), so every other vehicle would barge in there. So at present many toll booths have a sentry posted at the start of the lane, who would do a "phsyical check" of the tag and then allow entry.

My experiences are a mixed bag. During some trips & routes FasTag was actually "Slow Tag". But in other trips it was a boon. Have crossed toll booths in 1 min flat, when other vehicles took 15 mins.
Neither do we have implementation of vehicle plate number standards so wiritng OCR algorithms
FasTag is an RFID tag purchased separately and fixed on the wind shield.
Singha wrote:harmonization of all RTOs and a national registry for vehicles is a big GST type reform on Gadkariji's agenda i believe.
+1. Yes such a system is being envisaged. And looks like data aggregation from the various state level databases have also started. There was news about the vehicle details from Kerala being compromised. With today's technology I feel maintaining all this at a national level is definitely possible.

The stolen vehicle data sharing seems to be even part of the CCTNS (Crime & Criminal Tracking Network System); another project by the police organisations which still remains in infancy (even after 6-7 years). The RTO databases generally would contain information related to DLs, RCs; but that can off course ensure that people cannot have multiple DLs etc. Link this with Aadhaar, then it becomes even more fool proof.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Prasad »

NHAI IPO might happen this year - http://www.livemint.com/Money/xJSS4kI6e ... nod-t.html
Mint reported on 12 September that the government planned to fund large infrastructure projects by raising money in tranches of Rs10,000 crore by selling 10-year bonds at a coupon of 7.25-7.75%.


The Sagarmala programme for ports envisages Rs8 trillion of investment until 2035. To finance the Bharatmala programme for roads, India would require Rs10 trillion—the largest outlay for a government road construction programme ever.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Gus »

Singha wrote:harmonization of all RTOs and a national registry for vehicles is a big GST type reform on Gadkariji's agenda i believe.

eg vehicles stolen in other parts of india often end up re-registered in the north east hills states.
This and the whole "NOC" papers we have to chase because of procedures devised to shift blame.

Want a DL in new address? Get a NOC from old RTO. :evil:

why? any problems can then be blamed on old RTO..."they gave the NOC, go ask them"... :roll:
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Gus »

the only way to improve lines at toll booths is to just mandate FASTAG type automatic applications, with no gates in lanes. It will be a chaotic transition and usual howling of "how can govt force me to link my bank account for automatic recharge blah blah"..but on the whole, that is better than the time and fuel waste and road rage etc.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Sachin »

Gus wrote:the only way to improve lines at toll booths is to just mandate FASTAG type automatic applications, with no gates in lanes.
Some one is hearing you ;)
Vehicles blocking FASTag lanes at toll plazas will be fined
PS: GoI & NHAI needs to spread more awareness of the FasTag system. That has been lacking IMHO. People are giving it free word of mouth publicity, that is it.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Prasad »

Toll gates will be better served by proper queueing and lane markers at the start of the queue. When the q is long nobody knows which q is for which vehicle/type.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Chandragupta »

Sachin wrote:
Gus wrote:the only way to improve lines at toll booths is to just mandate FASTAG type automatic applications, with no gates in lanes.
Some one is hearing you ;)
Vehicles blocking FASTag lanes at toll plazas will be fined
PS: GoI & NHAI needs to spread more awareness of the FasTag system. That has been lacking IMHO. People are giving it free word of mouth publicity, that is it.
In this country, toll collectors get stabbed and shot for collecting valid toll, who will pay the fine? Imho, toll collectors in India should be armed. That's the way it is.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Rajesh_MR »

^^ I have seen guards with double barrel guns in toll plazas in TN. Not sure what is criteria for putting armed guards
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Gus »

Link aadhaar to DL, vehicle registration and insurance.

Penalties can be escalated to license cancel, then registration cancel and that affects insurance. People will fall in line and learn to pay fine.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by SBajwa »

India needs something like here in USA where you have

1. Option to pay the fine by mail or contest it in court by paying court costs.
2. You insurance gets adversely affected when you accumulate points based on your driving (each high speed ticket is 2 points and if you have 12 points in one year your license gets suspended).
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Gus »

you cannot put enforcement in the hands of people who could be threatened or bribed.

It should be systematic and done by call centers. let the offenders have license, registration, insurance issues and let them deal with call centers for an hour on the phone. people would automatically feel the incentive to just pay the fine promptly.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by JohnTitor »

Absolutely. Problem is with enforcement. If you enforce through people, bribes will be collected and enforcement will fail.

Unfortunately, India has become a country of bribe givers and bribe takers. You can get anything done, It is only a matter of price.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by SBajwa »

Some places in USA have automated the fines. A letter comes to your home with your car and face showing you went through red light or drove too fast. People have option of paying or contesting.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by srin »

^^^
Happens in BLR too. You get an inland letter asking you to pay the fine. Photograph is online, or in the police station.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Sachin »

srin wrote:Happens in BLR too. You get an inland letter asking you to pay the fine. Photograph is online, or in the police station.
Problem in cities like Bengaluru is that people also change their addresses very often, and then the local RTO would just remain clueless. At present there is no way to enforce that once a vehicle owner changes the residence, the address needs to get updated. The long term solution would be to come with some mechanism to "induce" the vehicle owner to update the latest address etc.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by SBajwa »

by Sachin
Problem in cities like Bengaluru is that people also change their addresses very often, and then the local RTO would just remain clueless. At present there is no way to enforce that once a vehicle owner changes the residence, the address needs to get updated. The long term solution would be to come with some mechanism to "induce" the vehicle owner to update the latest address etc
US postal service gives you a free of charge option where for next 6 months they will forward your mail to your new location. All you need is to go to your local post office and fill out a form with your name, your old address and your new address. You can also request to withhold any mail while you are on a vacation or away from 1 day to 6 months.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Javee »

The inducement can be a carrot and/or the long stick. On massa, license renewal information is sent to address on file and is done in easy 2 steps,if not you will need to take address proof etc. Also if you don't update the address and if your violations pile on, the next time you are caught, you are in for big trouble. For parking violations, it would be booted and for speeding tickets, your license will be canceled.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by saip »

Are you not required to renew registration every year? Even if they change the address the car license no does not change. Fines can be collected before the registration is renewed. Also, AFAIK there is requirement even in India that the address change must be notified within certain period and there is a fine if not done.

Added later: Looks like in India there is no requirement for annual renewal of vehicle registration.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Rajesh_MR »

^^ It was there. It was done away with some 25-30 years ago. In pre-computer era renewal was a hassle. Yellow board vehicles still go through annual certification process
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by A_Gupta »

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ne ... 196485.cms
Cabinet approves mega Rs 7-lakh crore project to develop 83,000 km highways in 5 years
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by hanumadu »

A_Gupta wrote:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ne ... 196485.cms
Cabinet approves mega Rs 7-lakh crore project to develop 83,000 km highways in 5 years
^^65,000 crores were allocated for highways in the last budget. Just the annual increases alone will cover most of the 7 lakh crore.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Prem »

Dipanker
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Dipanker »

Check out the GOI's Ministry of Road Transport and Highways website, two of the 4 cycling banner images are of Canadian and American Roads! This is not the first time. Another time the website had posted image of roads from Spain and claimed them to be Indian!

https://parivahan.gov.in/sarathiservice ... ePublic.do

supposedly of Gardiner expressway from Toronto!
Image

Stock photo of likely of American road, at least a half dozen different websites are using it!
Image
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Suraj »

Please state the webpage where they state that it's from India. Specific quotes to that effect.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Mollick.R »

It was declared more than a week ago, this thread of of BRF missed it, so posting it here for records.

Toll Collection: FASTags to become mandatory for all new four-wheelers from December 1
the government has notified all manufacturers and dealers to equip new cars rolled out on or after December 1 with FASTags.
......The radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled sticker is linked to a pre-paid account from which the payment is deducted every time one passes a toll.

............The NHAI also introduced FASTag lanes in 370 toll plazas under its purview on October 1. Around 6 lakh FASTags are already in circulation.


..........Minimum recharge for FASTag is Rs 100 and the maximum amount one can recharge for is Rs 1 lakh. Once a transaction takes place at a toll, the user will get an SMS alert notifying them of the amount paid.

.............."We have been waiting for the public to adopt this technology for cashless tolls and faster movement on national highways but unfortunately there has been not a very good response," a report in Mint quotes a senior government official saying. "As a result we decided to make it a compulsion to ensure there is a wider acceptability," he further added.

It is not compulsory for existing vehicle owners to paste FASTags on the windscreen of their cars.
The onus of buying a FASTag is not on the owner of the vehicle anymore and has been passed on to dealers and manufacturers. FASTags can be bought from tag issuers.
http://www.businesstoday.in/current/eco ... 63223.html
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Mollick.R »

A very good piece on Swarajyamag, mentioning reasons for poor response by mango people & practical steps required to encourage its use.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) yesterday (2 November) announced that all new four-wheelers will have to have a FASTag affixed to it from December. While the intent of the move – to promote the use of FASTag – is no doubt a good one,....................

The real problem with FASTag is that it is still accepted at only 370 toll plazas across the country.
Some national highway stretches such as the Hubballi-Dharwad bypass along the Mumbai-Chennai highway completely lack an electronic tolling system, thus making the common use of FASTag a distant dream. Further, due to jurisdictional issues such as roads being operated by different authorities (central, state and municipal), not all toll plazas may have an electronic toll collection (ETC) system in place, thus pushing away the possibility of a smooth cashless drive.
So, what should logically be the best way to popularise FASTag use?

One, get every toll plaza in the country on the bandwagon. Most states and some cities in India operate tolled roads. Barring the Satara-Kolhapur highway in Maharashtra, no state-operated toll plaza uses FASTag yet. Some, including the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)-built Bangalore Elevated Tollway, use FASTag at one of their two toll plazas and an independent on-board unit (OBU) at their main toll plaza. If every toll plaza is on the network, it would drastically reduce wait times and make things easier.

Two, ensure full compliance of FASTag. Many toll plazas have FASTag lanes, but many of them are non-functional. The Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL), which manages the entire operation, needs to penalise concessionaires that have dysfunctional lanes and must be proactive when it comes to solving issues that arise when FASTags don’t work.

Three, expand the scope of the FASTag. When introduced in 2014, it was envisioned for various purposes including for parking lots and to pay congestion charges (similar to the London congestion charge). Since airports and railway stations are directly under the jurisdiction of the central government, it would be easier to set up FASTag systems there. Unlike toll plazas, they wouldn’t require dedicated infrastructure – a simple handheld scanner would also do. Given how several railway stations and bus stations have parking contracts given out to shady companies who may cheat users, this would help significantly. Airports, railways, bus and metro stations should be the first among this lot. Municipal parking lots and pay and park zones should be next.

Four, make payments flexible. Currently, FASTag has only a prepaid option and there is a 10 per cent service charge levied on online transactions. The service charge needs to be reduced and a post-pay option needs to be introduced.

Five, enable better sale of FASTag for existing car owners. Given the sloppy and lacklustre implementation so far, newer vehicles getting FASTag would hold little significance if the existing users are not already on the system.
...........



The Full Article is Available Here.

https://swarajyamag.com/infrastructure/ ... ore-places
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Dipanker »

They don't claim these pictures to be from India, but being the website of ministry of road transport and highways one would expect that they would post pictures of Indian roads as banner pictures instead of roads from Canada and USA. What's the point of putting of pictures of Canadian and American roads as banner pictures on a govt. website? At the least it is embarrassing that such slip ups are allowed at the highest level of govt.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by periaswamy »

How is it that bureaucrats who implement schemes like FastTag do not seem to understand simple concepts like creating incentives for more people to use FastTag? One would think that if the goal is to reduce congestion and queueing, FastTag should be easy to subscribe to, and additional cost of subscription should be small enough to encourage people to use the scheme, as opposed to paying cash and waiting in a queue. I can see the logic for pre-pay, as post-pay just opens the door for delinquents to skip payment and increases the recovery cost, but the rest of the disincentives in the scheme make no sense, but I am assuming that the goal here is to have a smoother ride on the toll roads and no long lines...but maybe that is not the goal.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Suraj »

Dipanker wrote:They don't claim these pictures to be from India, but being the website of ministry of road transport and highways one would expect that they would post pictures of Indian roads as banner pictures instead of roads from Canada and USA. What's the point of putting of pictures of Canadian and American roads as banner pictures on a govt. website? At the least it is embarrassing that such slip ups are allowed at the highest level of govt.
Please stop trolling on this thread with your political nonsense. Your previous post literally states in so many words that they claim it's Indian. It's a cycling background image. It's NOT any sort of material information or data put out by the ministry, and at best is the work of some lazy web/UI agency.

Next instance of this kind of behavior earns a ban.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by disha »

The parivahan site https://parivahan.gov.in/sarathiservice ... ePublic.do is updated and looks like only sudh desi (pure country) photos are used. Maybe all it requires is for a citizen to point out a lazy overlook and it gets corrected. Easier to mock rather than do the effort of actually pointing it out.

I am actually impressed that one can apply for DL online now. And also do vehicle registration service! That is great beginnings!
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by Dipanker »

Deleted
Last edited by Suraj on 12 Nov 2017 07:29, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Poster let off this time. Next attempt earns 1 month ban.
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by uddu »

National Highways have increased from 96,000km to 170,000km in 3 years: Nitin Gadkari
http://www.autocarpro.in/news-national/ ... kari-26895

According to Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, the rate of construction of National Highways has gathered considerable momentum. Until three years ago, the country had 96,000 kilometres of national highways; this has now grown to nearly 170,000 kilometres, and will soon reach a length of 200,000 kilometres. :eek:

From an estimated 91,287km in 2013-14, the NH network grew to 97,991km in 2014-15, 101,010km in 2015-16 and 114,158km in 2016-17. Since then, until end-October, another 56,000-odd kilometres have been added.

Nearly doubled National highways build over 70 years in just 3 years. :eek: :D
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Re: Indian Roads Thread

Post by disha »

Abhi toh party shuru hui! The party has just begun!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ad-program
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