Across the world, road operators, concessionaires and financiers are grappling with the same fundamental question: how do we build and operate networks that remain reliable in the face of climate volatility, rising demand and rapid technological change? India’s experience offers useful perspectives that can enrich a global conversation about resilience by design.
Designing resilience into large, lived-in networks
India’s expressways and national highways have expanded at extraordinary speed, creating one of the world’s most extensive and varied road systems. Operators manage bridges, tunnels, toll plazas and control centres across thousands of kilometres, often in corridors that pass directly through towns and villages.
What stands out is not just the scale, but the way operators have had to design resilience into everyday practice, from logistics planning to workforce deployment to community engagement. Many of these challenges will feel familiar to operators elsewhere, and India’s experience adds another perspective to the shared effort of making large networks more robust and adaptable.
Climate extremes: aligning maintenance with environmental realities
India’s climate ranges from intense heat to heavy monsoon rainfall, with dust, sand and rapid vegetation growth adding further complexity. These conditions have pushed operators to structure maintenance around seasonal rhythms: pre‑monsoon drainage work, continuous pavement monitoring, slope inspections and rapid mobilisation during extreme weather.
Planning for the monsoon season is a critical aspect of ensuring operational resilience across road infrastructure and tolling operations. It involves a combination of preventive maintenance, risk assessment, resource mobilisation, and emergency response preparedness to minimise disruptions during periods of heavy rainfall and flooding. Typical preparations include pre-monsoon inspections of drainage systems, culverts, slopes, pavements, and electrical installations; deployment of emergency response teams and equipment; coordination with local authorities and disaster management agencies; and establishing communication protocols for real-time incident management. Additionally, contingency plans are developed to address potential traffic diversions, flooding hotspots, landslides, and power outages, ensuring safety for road users while maintaining continuity of operations throughout the monsoon period.
The value here lies in the mindset rather than the specific measures. It’s a reminder that resilience is strengthened when maintenance strategies are shaped around environmental realities, something operators in many regions are now revisiting as climate patterns shift.
Heterogeneous traffic: operational resilience in motion
Indian highways carry a uniquely diverse mix of users, from heavy trucks to two‑wheelers, tractors and livestock. Managing this variety has encouraged operators to blend intelligent systems with on‑the‑ground insight: real‑time monitoring, advanced tolling, incident response fleets and mechanised maintenance.
For global peers, the takeaway is less about the traffic mix itself and more about the operational posture it demands: one where resilience is dynamic, supported by data but grounded in human judgement.
People and technology: building resilient organisations together
Despite increasing digitalisation, India’s O&M sector remains deeply people‑centred. Engineers, toll operators, patrol teams and incident responders form the backbone of operations, supported by growing investment in training, safety and professionalisation.
Digital tools, from AI‑enabled monitoring to predictive maintenance, are becoming more prominent, but their impact depends on how well they are integrated into organisational culture and workflows. This is a shared challenge across markets: designing organisations where people and technology reinforce one another to create long‑term resilience.
Egis in India: combining global experience with local realities
Operators such as Egis Road Operations illustrate how international expertise and local knowledge can work together to strengthen resilience. Managing assets across varied geographies and traffic environments, Egis adapts global standards to India’s operational context, with a focus on safety, user experience, efficiency and climate‑ready infrastructure.
This approach aligns with what many concessionaires and financiers are prioritising worldwide: operational models that protect asset value and performance over the long term.
Looking ahead: co‑designing the next generation of resilient O&M
India’s evolution reflects broader shifts happening across global road networks. The coming years will likely see:
- more mechanisation and automation,
- deeper use of digital monitoring and analytics,
- stronger climate‑resilience strategies,
- enhanced safety systems,
- and more collaborative public‑private partnerships.
What India’s experience reinforces is that resilience by design is a shared endeavour that spans infrastructure, operations, technology and people. As operators and investors worldwide navigate similar pressures, there is real value in exchanging approaches, comparing lessons and shaping solutions together.