The government is currently conducting a nationwide field validation of an artificial intelligence system designed to detect potholes, cracks, and other road defects. This initiative, which began earlier this month, utilizes videos captured on mobile phones to assess rural road conditions. A senior official confirmed the ongoing tests on Sunday.
The system is being developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) with the National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA). At present, road maintenance is monitored through physical inspections and geo-tagged photographs recorded by field officials on the eMARG mobile application.
The ministry has given “in-principle approval” for trials of the AI-based road-condition assessment system on roads built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), according to the official. The technology is only being tested as a tool to support road maintenance decisions, while engineers will continue to physically verify road defects, compare their measurements with the findings generated by the AI system, the official cited above said. “The AI-based road condition assessment is being developed and field-validated to support efficient and technology-enabled road maintenance assessment,” the official added. Trials using an improved version of the model were subsequently conducted on seven roads in Kanpur district and Berasia block of Bhopal district, the official said. “The exercise is intended to provide more data to refine the system before wider use,” the official said.
The initial trials earlier this year covered six roads in Pune, Lucknow district, Kamrup district in Assam and Ri-Bhoi district in Meghalaya.
Currently, a mobile application is being used to record road-condition videos to check the quality of these roads, using a mobile device already mounted on vehicles available with PIUs.
The government said dedicated dashcams could be considered later depending on field requirements and operational suitability.
