New Delhi, Sept. 1 -- In a bid to ensure pothole-free, high-quality highways, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has mandated the use of Automated and Intelligent Machine-Aided Construction (AI-MC) for all highway projects extending more than 20 km and costing over Rs.500 crore.

Under the new directive, contractors will have to deploy AI-MC from the initial stages of road construction and use it continuously throughout the entire project area.

The system will be required at several critical stages of highway construction. These include the embankment, which forms the raised earth foundation; the subgrade, or the compacted soil layer beneath the road; and the Granular Sub-Base (GSB), which consists of crushed stone, sand and...