AI-powered road maintenance: How India can save billions in rework

India has invested heavily in expanding its road network over the past decade. Highways, city roads, and rural corridors are being built to improve mobility and economic activity. Yet, a recurring problem continues to affect both budgets and outcomes: roads often require repair much sooner than expected. These repeated fixes, commonly referred to as rework, consume large amounts of public money and disrupt daily movement. Reducing rework is less about building more roads and more about maintaining existing ones better. This is where data-led and automated inspection methods are beginning to play an important role.

In a developing country like India, the consequences of inefficiency are amplified. Limited maintenance budgets must support vast and diverse road networks, often under heavy traffic and challenging climatic conditions. Every missed inspection, delayed intervention, or repeat repair carries a higher opportunity cost. Improving how roads are maintained is not only a technical concern, but ...