NHAI deploys its in-house built AI system to flag faulty DPRs, track road defects

4 min readJun 18, 2026 07:57 PM IST

The NHAI's AI team has developed a Technical Schedule Analyzer tool, which reviews DPR's schedule B & C documents and flags findings by severity and scoring completeness. (Image generated using AI)

In a step to check the deficiencies in Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of new highways, faster analysis on road defects, identification of faulty signages, synthesizing learnings from previous arbitration and project delays, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has deployed its own AI system, which works on the basis of NHAI’s voluminous repository of documents such as circulars, act, IRC codes, monthly reports etc, and does not wander off to the open internet.

The access to this system is currently provided only to the NHAI officials, which acts as an assistance tool by reducing the burden to go through multiple circulars, SOPs or IRC codes, which runs into hundreds of pages.

NHAI Chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav said that the access will be granted to the consultant and contractors also soon after ensuring that there are no loopholes for misuse of Authority’s information.

“This system was needed because when we did the workflow study of Project Directors and regional officers of NHAI last year, we found that they have to be unnecessarily involved in a number of work, which can be easily done through AI tools. With this system in place, any official can check the defect of a highway by just uploading a photo. The system will quickly run through hundreds of guidelines, codes, notification, specifications and give the result,” said Yadav.

He also said that NHAI’s AI system also addresses the problem of faulty DPRs, which becomes the foundation of any highways project. This problem has been repeatedly flagged by Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari where he said that road accidents and fatalities in India are increasing because of poor civil engineers, consultants, concessionaires and substandard DPRs.

“Our biggest problem is DPRs. For instance, In a Rs. 2000 crore project, there will always be the various of Rs. 200-300 crore and additional has to be taken up. Now, we have to just upload the DPR of any project and the AI system will find the errors against IRC codes, MoRTH and standard policy circulars. Thus, these problems can be fixed in advance,” said Yadav.

The NHAI’s AI team has developed a Technical Schedule Analyzer tool, which reviews DPR’s schedule B & C documents and flags findings by severity and scoring completeness. Schedule B and Schedule C are core technical annexures that define the exact physical scope of the highway project.

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Apart from this, Margsarthi is NHAI’s in-house chat based AI agent, where officials can query question as per their work requirement. For instance, a field engineer can photograph a site condition and query Margsarthi that what to do next as per the guidelines. The AI tool is connected to NHAI’s datalake and have mapped end to end cycle of road construction.

It went live on April 18 and has received over 50,000 queries from around 1100 users so far. Over 40% of the questions were on circulars and documents.

“When we started working on this, we found that across the organization, the officials used to keep personal folders of circulars, acts and similar reference material on their own computers. Even for experienced officers, it was difficult to keep track of the sheer volume of rules and regulations in force. With this system, they can get it in just one query,” said a senior engineer of the project.

The other tools are Kick-Off and MPR insights, which tracks every issues raised in kick off meetings and monthly project reports, flags critical issues and bottlenecks with a direct link back to the original minutes, and surfaces high-priority and overdue issues, each with a recommended action and a citation to the source page.

Dheeraj Mishra is a Principal Correspondent with the Business Bureau of The Indian Express. He plays a critical role in covering India's massive infrastructure sectors, providing in-depth reporting on the connectivity lifelines of the nation.

Expertise & Focus Areas: Mishra’s journalism is focused on two of the country's most capital-intensive and public-facing ministries:

Ministry of Railways: Tracking the operations, safety, and development of India's vast railway network.

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways: Covering policy decisions, infrastructure projects, and highway development.

What sets Mishra apart is his rigorous use of the Right to Information (RTI) Actas a primary tool for news gathering. By relying on official data and government records, he ensures a high degree of accuracy and trustworthiness in his reporting. This data-driven approach has resulted in numerous impactful reports that hold public institutions accountable and bring transparency to government operations.

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