NHAI Collaborates With ISRO's NRSC To Develop "Green Cover Index" For National Highways
In a significant move towards enhancing environmental sustainability, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) under the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The collaboration, spanning three years, aims to develop and report a "Green Cover Index" for the extensive network of National Highways in India.
According to the official statement, since the inception of the Green Highways Policy in 2015, greening highway corridors has been a key focus for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and NHAI.
Currently, the monitoring of plantations primarily relies on site visits conducted by field personnel.
Leveraging the capabilities of emerging technologies to enhance in-situ data collection and supplement plantation management, the NRSC will employ high-resolution satellite imagery to undertake a comprehensive pan-India estimation of green cover along National Highways.
This initiative, known as the "Green Cover Index," is poised to be a robust and reliable mechanism, providing a time-saving and cost-effective solution to generate a macro-level estimate of the greenery along National Highways.
It will also enable targeted interventions in regions that lack adequate green cover.
Headquartered in Hyderabad, NRSC is tasked with establishing ground stations for receiving satellite data, generating data products, and developing techniques for remote sensing applications.
As a proof of concept, NRSC has successfully conducted pilot projects for estimating green cover along National Highways.
The primary goal of the project is to capture the Green Cover Index region-wise for National Highways in the first assessment cycle. Subsequent annual cycles will focus on estimating the growth patterns of green cover for National Highways using scientific techniques.
The findings will facilitate comparison and ranking of various National Highways, enabling timely and periodic interventions. As green cover will be estimated for every 1 km length of the National Highways, granular metrics for individual projects/packages can also be generated.
This initiative underscores NHAI's commitment to playing a pivotal role in fostering the green transformation of highways, contributing significantly to the nation's overall environmental well-being.
The collaborative effort aligns with broader sustainability goals and reflects a proactive approach towards evaluating and enhancing the ecological impact of India's extensive National Highways network.
