Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari during the signing of MoU between NHAI and NRSC today.
New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Space Research Organization’s National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) for three years to develop and report a “Green Cover Index” for the extensive network of National Highways in India.
Using the capabilities of emerging technologies to enhance in-situ data collection and supplement plantation management and monitoring, including performance audits conducted by NHAI, the NRSC will undertake a comprehensive pan-India estimation of green cover, referred to as the “Green Cover Index” for National Highways using high-resolution satellite imagery. Presently, the monitoring of plantations relies upon on-site visits by field personnel.
This innovative approach is expected to be a robust and reliable mechanism, that could provide a time-saving and cost-effective solution to generate a macro-level estimate of the degree of greenness along National Highways. It is also expected to facilitate targeted interventions in regions that are reported to lack adequate green cover.
NRSC, headquartered in Hyderabad, has the mandate for the establishment of ground stations for receiving satellite data, generation of data products, and development of techniques for remote sensing applications including geospatial services for good governance among other things. As a proof of concept, NRSC has already conducted successful pilot projects for the estimation of green cover along National Highways.
The overarching endeavour of the project is to capture the Green Cover Index region-wise for National Highways in the first assessment cycle. Subsequent annual cycles will focus on estimating the growth patterns of green cover for National Highways using scientific techniques. The findings of the index will facilitate the comparison and ranking of various National Highways for timely and periodic intervention.
As green cover would be estimated for every 1 km length of the National Highways, it would be possible to generate granular metrics for individual projects/packages as well. This initiative underscores a sincere commitment to evaluate NHAI’s pivotal role in fostering the green transformation of highways, thereby, contributing to the nation’s overall environmental well-being. Since the initiation of the Green Highways Policy in 2015, the prioritization of greening Highway Corridors has been a focal point for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and NHAI.
– global bihari bureau
