The Centre announced its intention to finalise the GIS mapping of all national highways, encompassing the delineation of the jurisdictions of state-owned developers, with the aim of enhancing the planning, execution, and monitoring of the road network, as well as ensuring the timely completion of projects. In line with this initiative, the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) informed all project implementing units of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), and the ministry itself to ensure the marking of their jurisdictions on the national highways dashboard by the end of May. This would enable the availability of comprehensive GIS data for highways, including jurisdictional segregation, for future reference and expediting work processes.

The primary objective of this standard operating procedure (SOP) is to rationalise GIS-based data collection for all National Highways in India under the MoRTH. According to an office memorandum from MoRTH, the SOP seeks to clearly outline the responsibility areas for each National Highway, utilize a GIS-based mapping system via the media portal for network definition and data visualisation, implement a verification process by the administrative team to ensure the accuracy and reliability of data, and employ the collected data for various communication purposes concerning the highway system.