ROAD ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIESIMPLEMENTATION AND CHALLENGES

Road transportation has amplified over the years with the improvement in connectivity between cities, towns and villages. As on 2016, India has the second largest road network across the world with a total road-length of 5.603 million km, just behind The United States of America (6.722 million km). In order to preserve and rehabilitate this vast road network in a desired condition, a robust network management strategy is essential. This strategy should make use of pavement and traffic data to decide the type of treatment to be provided on a pavement section and is widely known as Road Asset Management System (RAMS). RAMS is a relatively new concept and is widely accepted and put to use by road agencies in developed countries, where it is now also a mandatory requirement. In developing countries like India, however it is in the process of being introduced, but slowly. Introduction of RAMS in developing countries presents unique challenges which are needed to be addressed along with possible approaches to resolve the same. RAMS is not a part of the undergraduate civil engineering curriculum in the universities and technical institutes of these countrieswith some exceptions that too at postgraduate level. One of the reasons for the same is that the field of RAMS involves not only civil engineering, but also several diverse disciplines such as Information Technology (for Programming and Database Management System), Geographic Information System (GIS), Mathematical Modelling etc. This paper describes the concepts and components of a modern Road Asset Management System (RAMS) and its use and application by road agencies. The various challenges along with the solutions in implementing RAMS in countries like India have been discussed in details. The authors have covered various dimensions of the multidisciplinary aspects of RAMS, which is bound to be an essential component of road agencies in India, sooner or later.