Narendra Modi

tech-savvy road network

Nitin Gadkari

Mohandas Pai



India has the second largest road network in the world at 4.7 million km. Prime Ministerhas outlined a new model of infrastructural development in the country for creating a well-connected Digital India. Ais probably the first step towards digitalisation.In order to unify the separate projects for road, highways and ports along with other technology-based initiatives, Minister of Road Transport and Highways of Indiais building up a special 10-member task force which also includes former Infosys CFO. The information was revealed in an Economic Times report.This task force will be headed and chaired by Gadkari. Former IT secretary for Andhra Pradesh Sanjay Jaju, partner at Ekam Consulting Abhijit Purushottam Desai, Prashant Pole who is a director at Disha Consultants, and Girish Srivastava, a policy and strategy consultant are also the part of this task force.This new team will work on new strategies under a four-year plan, people familiar with the developments informed ET. They further said that the second meeting of the group is slated to be held in the first week of April, adding that the first meeting was on March 9.According to Jaju, who is director of National Highways Infrastructure Development Corporation, "We are building an enterprise architecture and architecture for the ministry to bring together all these disparate projects in a unified form. Certain new initiatives are also planned."Requesting anonymity, the third person told ET, "The task force's main agenda of the task force is to make sure that all IT initiatives are put under a proper governance mechanism and there is synergy between the various components.""Two main things that are being worked upon right now are INAMPRO and PACE (Project Appraisal and Continuing Enhancements) - it is an MIS system for roads and highways." Jaju told ET. (Image: The Economic Times)