Sukhad Yatra Aides Centre’s Modernisation Projects

2024-11-01 02:45:43 News & Society

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The launch of Sukhad Yatra, a highway-utility mobile application from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), is being hailed as a step further towards the realisation of the Central government?s drive to integrate Information Technology (IT) and digitalise the public sector and its services.

Launched by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on March 7, 2018, the mobile application serves the purpose of increasing safety in, bringing transparency to, and supporting the development of the highways sector through direct involvement of its key stakeholder, the commuter.

The highway-utility application also is a part of the Centre?s bid to modernise India?s highway infrastructure. The modernisation drive involves a cluster project that in turn is comprised of subprojects such as Wayside Amenities (WSA) and Electronic Toll Collection (ETC).

The highway application complements both the WSA and ETC through several of its built-in tools. These tools cover one or more aspects of both the projects, such as the buying FASTags and finding out civic amenities on or near highways.

Nearby Toll Plaza(s), Toll Plaza Enroute, Buy FASTag, Know Your Highway, Near By, Report An Issue, Report Summary, and Rate Us are a few of the built-in features the GPS-powered Sukhad Yatra app offers.

For readers who aren?t abreast with the Union government?s highway megaprojects, here is some useful information to add perspective:
The government had initiated a constellation project for the modernisation of highways, and later handed over it to the NHAI. WSA, ETC, and Incident Management System (Advanced Traffic Management System) are a few among the included subprojects.

The WSA comprises of the Highway Village, the Highway Nest, and the Highway Nest (Mini). The construction of the two Nests is already in full swing with the subprojects already operational at Toll plazas on a few national highways. These provide commuters with a safe halting point along with several advanced civic amenities.

ETC automatically and instantly deducts Toll taxes at dedicated lanes on highways by connecting with RFID-encoded FASTag stickers linked to the bank account of the user. This eliminates the need for paperwork, halting, and manpower which in turn diminishes traffic congestion at these toll plazas.

Circling back to the subject of interest, Sukhad Yatra has the Buy FASTag feature to download and recharge FASTags, which are in turn used for paying toll charges at ETC lanes. The app also has several tools that can track nearest amenities, including those available at WSAs (if on a highway with one), and guide the user to the right route.

Besides these, the highways application also provides users with a strong feedback mechanism through features such as Report An Issue, Report Summary, and Rate Us. These allow motorists to register their grievances against any highway Toll authority or service.
Complaints registered via Report An Issue are stored in a centralised database and addressed quickly. The feedback system also allows users to rate the app in order to help developers improve the service. This improves transparency and increases vigilance against fraudulent practices, another key step in the government?s Digital India drive.

Besides these functions, the grievance redressal mechanism also allows motorists to report dilapidated roads and damaged highway infrastructure.

The highway utilities application already has been downloaded more than 40,000 times in the first week of its launch, and according to the government is poised to grow rapidly in a matter of months.

Sukhad Yatra is an important part of the Union government?s Digital India and highway modernisation undertakings. The application is accelerating the government?s ongoing highway infrastructure modernisation projects.