Responsible for managing 33,000 km of road network in Kerala, find out how iROADS allowed Kerala PWD to receive feedback directly from road users.
About Kerala Public Words Department
Kerala Public Works Department (PWD) plays a major role in the infrastructure development of the State of Kerala. The PWD maintains 33,593 KM of roads comprising of National Highways, State Highways, Major District Roads and Other District Roads. Maintenance of these assets are very important and requires a scientific needs-based approach, so that the available resources are to be utilised appropriately.
Project Background
Computerised road asset management systems play an effective and efficient role, supporting road agencies across the developed world and effective management of road assets for optimum maintenance and utilisation of funds.
Kerala PWD however, had a 15-year-old GIS based Road Information system and HDM-4 based Road Maintenance Management System (RMMS) that wasn’t performing. With limited functionality and outdated technologies Kerala wanted to completely upgrade the system and implement a state-of-the- art software system for road asset management
Key Challenges
1) Lack of Information
Without a system for keeping and updating inventory and condition of road assets, department didn’t have access to accurate records of road assets.
2) Ineffective Resource Allocation
Without reliable and current data, allocation of funds for maintenance was based on an ad-hoc approach, meaning priority areas were being missed.
3) Siloed Information
With no system for PWD Engineers and Managers to collect, store and access data across the organisation, knowledge became localised to engineers.
4) Inefficient Communication
Kerala PWD lacked an efficient process to gather and monitor issues raised by the citizens regarding problems on the road network.
Kerala Public Works Department feedback
iROADS… is very good and users love the simplicity… Road Users are directly capturing the feedback to iROADS which helps the authorities to understand public priorities. TRL Software are a team who we trust and have delivered.
Connecting with the Public
As part of the project, Kerala PWD launched a mobile app, allowing members of the public to directly report issues. The app has a 4-star rating and was downloaded by 30,000 people in the first 30 days. Over the first 50 days of the app, more than 11,000 issues were flagged by the public. Because of the connected approach, issues were passed to the relevant agency engineer and solved within 5 days. were
Project Results
Having implemented iROADS on 7,000km of core road network amazing results were achieved. It resulted in a 99% increase in issues reported and a 83% improvements in wait time for issues to be resolved.
Kerala PWD are now focusing on digitising the rest of the 33,000km making up their entire road network. The focus is continuing the momentum and using iROADS to manage and maintain the roads assets in the whole network using an evidence-based approach.
Project Benefits
– A Road Asset Management System providing condition and information of all road assets owned by Kerala PWD can be accessed by junior to senior management staff in the organization with a user name and password
– Instant access to management reports
– Value for money spent on the network since the maintenance budget allocation will be data-led and needs based
– Customer oriented approach to asset management with the launch of the PWD4U Public Mobile App
– Automated asset inspection and date collection through iROADS App for PWD
iROADS benefits
– Connect to any data assets via IoT and business systems using iROADS Digital twin hub.
– Integrate ontologies into iROADS to break down in inter- department barriers and silos.
– Climate resilience module to prepare climate-resilience schemes and disaster management.
– Mobile apps for the agency to collect asset data and for citizens to raise issues on the network.
– Bring your digital roads to live with graph representation in a live execution environment.
– Output to Time Series Insights, storage and analytics using event routes to downstream services.
To find out how you could benefit from iROADS contact the team at hello@trl-technologies.in