In March this year, Pon Radhakrishnan, the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways stated in the Lok Sabha that a web-based application system is being developed to monitor the progress of highway projects. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is all set to set invest in web applications development.

The web-based application will provide information such as utilization of funds and real-time status updates for more than 2000 projects. These projects are being executed by multiple agencies.

To ensure best practices in the road transport sector, the union government has introduced three IT and ITES initiatives already. These are named: ePACE, INFRACON, and INAM PRO.

ePACE

The MIS portal has a GIS interface which enables geo-tracking of projects. It also the feature to allow cheque validation which can prevent wrongful entries. This validation feature can also make it difficult for anyone to tamper with figures. The portal brings all the wings of the Union Transport Ministry together, on one common platform. The goal behind this is to ensure real time and effective tracking of each project.

INFRACON

The name stands for National Portal for Infrastructure Consultancy Firms and Key Personnel. The purpose of creating this is to facilitate communication between road engineering and construction consultancy firms and domain experts and personnel officially deployed for project supervision.

Credentials of these consultancy firms and personnel will be hosted by the portal itself. Also, there will be linkages to Aadhar and Digi-locker for the validation and authenticity of data.

INAM PRO

A web-based application for Infrastructure and Material Providers, INAM PRO was launched in March 2015. It is intended to be a marketplace where suppliers, providers, and prospective buyers together. For instance, cement buyers who are engaged in road construction can order cement online at competitive prices from cement companies that are registered with this marketplace.

The model of INAM PRO will make it easy for the ministry to track buyer and supplier activity and eliminate impediments of both buyers and sellers. In the one year that it has been in operation, the portal has made 250 lakh tons of cement available at affordable prices for infrastructure projects.

These three initiatives were launched by Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping. These were part of the Digital India Programme. Innovative and promising, they were built to make road construction procedures faster, more efficient and more transparent. The organization behind developing web based applications is NHIDCL or National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd.
“We have decided to use IT applications on a large scale. We are monitoring 900 projects worth Rs 6 lakh crore. And we can see the progress. By monitoring, we can increase efficiency,” said Mr. Gadkari at the launch of the app to keep a tab on highway projects.

Why It’s Good News For Developers

The Indian government is looking to use IT applications massively for monitoring such projects. This is good news for app developers. This presents an opportunity to create apps with useful features and functionalities for government projects and showcases them to the government. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an indie developer or have been into web based applications development for a while.

If you know how to make an app and you have an idea that can be useful for government projects, it’s showtime. Roll up your sleeves and get to work. Oh and don’t forget to practice pitching your app. Who knows, you could be the next lucky fellow whose app idea got noticed by the government!