National highways face report card test: Govt to assess potholes, road safety, congestion, toll plazas and user experience

The road transport and highways ministry will soon start assessing the overall performance of national highways corridors to help improve the user experience.

In a notification issued on Thursday, the ministry said two separate rating criteria will be adopted for "access controlled expressways and designated high-speed corridors" and normal national highways. These highways will be ranked across three categories, including highway efficiency, highway safety and user experience, with various sub-parameters under the three main categories.

"The rating of national highways is intended to provide a comprehensive assessment of the highway corridor and facilitate identification of deficiencies and prioritisation of measures for improvement," the ministry said.

The ministry will consider peak congestion, level of service, pavement condition index, toll plaza rating, presence of automated teller machines (ATMs) every 20 km and uniformity of paved carriageway width while determining the rating under the highway efficiency parameter.

Further, the number of accidents per 10 km per annum, the accident severity index, the number of fatalities and any project failures leading to road closures and diversions will be considered while determining the highway safety parameter ranking.