Roads are an important mode of transport in India. India has a network of over 58,97,671 kilometers (36,64,643 mi) of roads as of 31 March 2017. This is the second-largest road network in the world, after the United States. The National highways in India are a network of trunk roads that is owned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. It is constructed and managed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), and the public works departments (PWD) of state governments.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is an autonomous agency of the Government of India, set up in 1988 and is responsible for management of a network of over 50,000 km of National Highways out of 1,15,000 km in India. It is a nodal agency of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways responsible for building, upgrading, and maintaining most of the National Highways network in India.
(National Highway Authority of India) vide Office Memorandum dated 21-07-2016
The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) is a major effort to expand and upgrade the network of highways. NHAI often uses a public–private partnership model for highway development, maintenance, and toll-collection. India has 142,126 km (88,313 mi) of National Highways as of April 2019. National Highways constituted 2.7% of India's total road network, but carried about 40% of road traffic, as of 2013.
NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) vide Office Memorandum dated 21-07-2016 has made the Mobile LiDAR technology mandatory in preparation of the Feasibility Study Report (FSR) and Detailed Project Report (DPR) for bringing more accuracy & speed in the execution of such highway projects.
“Prashant Advanced Survey LLP” is the first company in India to procure “Leica Pegasus One” 3D Mobile LiDAR Survey & mapping System in March 2015. It is also the 1st Land Surveying company in India to possess 2 numbers of ‘Leica Pegasus Two’ Mobile LiDAR Systems in the year 2017. We use this, State of the art, 3D Mobile LiDAR Technology for carrying out 3D LiDAR topographic survey of Expressway, Highway for Detailed Project Report (DPR) & Feasibility Surveys Report (FSR) projects in India.
Our 3D Mobile LiDAR ‘Leica Pegasus Two’ system
We have the capacity to capture LiDAR data of highways for about 200 Kilometers per day using two instruments, with accuracy of about +/- 2 cm. We have successfully completed more than 12,000 chainage Kms of highway surveys throughout India using 3D Mobile LiDAR technology since year 2015.
3D Mobile LiDAR Survey of highway using our ‘Leica Pegasus Two’ systems
The ‘Leica Pegasus Two’ system gives a unique & complete Survey grade mobile mapping solution to our clients with high speed & accuracy. The system can be mounted on any four-wheeler vehicle & can capture high precise data upto +/- 2 cm for about 100 Km of Highways in one day, which would have taken at least a month using primitive Electronic Total Stations (ETS) method.
The Leica ‘Pegasus Two’ mobile LiDAR System can capture:
- ‘3D Scan point cloud data’ in 360 degrees : (using Z+F 9012 profiler).
- ‘High Resolution photographs’ in all directions. (using CCD Cameras).
- ‘Trajectory file’ / position information, (using GNSS Receivers).
The Pegasus system captures dense 3D point cloud data with calibrated imagery and enables processing, visualization and mapping through user-friendly software platform “Way Point Inertial Explorer, Leica Auto PP & Leica Map Factory Advanced”. Further, after post processing & feature extraction of the 3D point cloud data, output in desired format like Autocad *.dwg or Arc GIS *.shp files can be obtained. The further deliveries also include the cross section in *.csv and *.dxf format of bare earth, DTM / TIN, Contours, 360 degrees panoramic views of the entire highway corridor.
Screenshot of 3D Scan point cloud data of a two lane highway in ‘Leica Map Factory’
Screen Shot of ‘Photographs’ & ‘3D Scan point cloud data’ in ‘Leica Map Factory’ software
Key points of LiDAR Data Capture using our Mobile LiDAR 'Leica Pegasus Two'
- Mobile LiDAR Data can be collected with the speed of vehicle varying from 10 Km / hour (on city roads) up to 80 Km / hour (on Highways). Ideal vehicle speed maintained by us is usually 30 to 40 Km / hour on city roads and 40 to 50 Km / hour on Highways.
- Each run of Mobile LiDAR can easily capture about 150 m corridor (i.e. 75 m on either side of the run) with dense 3D point cloud data, 360 degrees panoramic view camera data and GNSS / IMU data. Multiple runs are usually required for capturing high quality 3D point cloud data on Highways and Expressways with median, grade separators and service roads.
- In one day, about 70 Km to 100 Km length Mobile LiDAR data can be easily collected by 'Leica Pegasus Two' on a two-lane highway with single run.
- The raw data collected on site is so dense (about 1 GB data collected for 1 Km length of highway) that it has to be downloaded into external hard disk and transported to the head office for further data processing and feature extraction, from the registered 3D point cloud data.
- LiDAR data processing and registration on 3D point cloud is done using 'Leica Auto Process' software, whereas the feature extraction of point, line and polygon features are done using multiple licenses of Leica Map factory software. Final delivery of 3D topographic plan can be made in Arc GIS shape files or Autocad Dwg files as per the requirements of the client.
Sample 3D plan of highway corridor, generated from Mobile LiDAR Survey.
For some inaccessible areas like culvert invert levels, or bypasses where the four-wheeler vehicle cannot be driven, the Mobile LiDAR technology can be assisted by our traditional DGPS RTK surveys or PPK UAV / Drone surveys to generate a complete data of the given corridor.
Survey Grade Mobile Lidar Insturment Along With Processing Software Owned By M/s Prashant Surveys, Pune
| Sr. | Name of Mobile LiDAR Equipment | Make | Numbers |
|---|---|---|---|
| (Survey Grade, Mobile LiDAR) | |||
| 1) | Leica Pegasus Mobile Mapping System / (NSV), with Z+F profiler 9012 Laser Scanner, having 119 m range & Scan point density of 1 million points per second & having 6 CCD cameras & additional pavement camera for pavement analysis, cracks, distress & IRI. (Width of corridor practically covered with dense 3D point cloud data = 150 m) |
LEICA Geosystems, Pegasus Two Mobile Mapping System (MMS) | 2 |
| 2) | Waypoint Inertial Explorer (for trajectory), Leica Auto PP (for data pre-processing & preparing registered 3D point cloud data), Leica Map Factory advanced : Arc GSI; (for data processing & feature extraction), Arc GIS Desktop (for drawings & delivery) {4 License for pre-processing and 8 License for post processing & feature extraction}. 3D Reshaper {for classification, DEM / TIN} |
LEICA Geosystems | 13 |
LiDAR Data Capture by ‘Leica Pegasus Two’ Mobile LiDAR System