Road Infrastructure Mapping for Ri Bhoi District of Meghalaya

Development of infrastructure has not yet picked up due to variety of reasons in the states of North Eastern Region of the country. Because of inadequate road connectivity, particularly in rural areas, many areas with high development potential remain isolated from the main land and major portion of the common dwellers of these places get deprived of basic facilities like health care, education etc. Roads play an important role in all aspects of development such as agriculture, fishery, health, education, small-scale industries, trade etc. The absence of roads in rural areas leads to the stagnation of socio-economic conditions of the villagers. An up-to-date road information system is the first step towards proper infrastructure building in any state. This paper conveys the suitability and applications of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology in the development of Road Information System, which will help the planners and administrators to identify the problems associated with rural road development activities, location and provision of appropriate facilities, monitoring and maintenance management of the assets created in the rural areas. Study has been carried out for Ri Bhoi district of Meghalaya which covers an area of 2448 Sq. Km with a population of 1,92,790 as per 2001 census. The region is still poor in transportation and communication. NH 40 is the only National Highway passes through the district. The district has a total road length of 893.017kms which includes National Highway, State way, Major district road, other district road and Village road. The long distance from main land and bottleneck in transportation has been main causes for low prices of exportable commodities to the other places and high prices commodities coming into the district. High resolution satellite imagery (IRS PAN + LISS III merged data) along with other existing PWD road maps, land record maps etc. followed by an extensive field survey with GPS have been used for 1:50K scale thematic mapping activities. Query based services like road connectivity between any two points, distance and accessibility (of various amenities from a given isolated place), information bank based on buffering and proximity analysis, route information like shortest route, alternate route etc. in a given area during emergency situation based on network analysis have been incorporated here. Road Infrastructure mapping developed under ArcGIS Geodatabase environment has efficiency in monitoring, management, planning and subsequent development of the road network in the district.