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L.N. Revathi

TAKE the case of the National Highways Authority of India, which has been responsible for the development, maintenance and management of the national highways in India.

The NHAI is mandated to construct 13,146 km of 4/6 lane highways of international standards in India. This is a part of the largest highway development project undertaken worldwide - called the National Highway Development Project (NHDP).

The extended team working on the NHDP includes consultants from the international community, contractors, suppliers and the NHAI staff. They need to access and share the most up-to-date information from both their headquarters and on site locations.

In addition to this, they also need to share bulky design documents and project files in real time at short deadlines.

While these files are too big to be shared over the e-mail, shipping them can be both time-consuming and expensive.

The NHAI's portfolio of Autodesk design and mapping software include AutoCAD, Autodesk Map, Autodesk MapGuide. The benefits to NHAI were immense, says Dhupar. It included the seamless transfer of bulky design documents in real time and the timely submission of detailed project report in real time over the Internet to funding agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

The mobile field force has access to the latest design drawings and bills of material. They can make changes in real time. Cost savings on shipping and travel is significant. This results in an economical ordering of material and equipment by contractors, as there is no necessity to stockpile raw material, he says.

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