CITIUS TransNet AI identifies 100-plus highway defect types

CITIUS TransNet uses its iHAMS system to analyse weekly dashcam footage with artificial intelligence and machine learning, comparing images with a digital twin to identify more than 100 types of highway defects. The operating framework also combines toll data, fieldwork records, maintenance modelling and materials testing across its road-management activities.

How does CITIUS identify more than 100 highway defect types?

CITIUS identifies more than 100 highway defect types through iHAMS, its Intelligent Highway Assets Monitoring system. iHAMS analyses weekly dashcam footage collected through an RPV and compares the visuals with a digital twin, creating a repeated process for detecting changes in highway condition.

The presentation describes iHAMS as a real-time-monitoring tool within an integrated digital framework for efficiency, safety and proactive management. CITIUS does not disclose the number of defects identified, repaired or prevented in a reporting period, so the more-than-100 figure is the number of defect categories the system can detect rather than a reported count of defects.

What other digital systems does CITIUS use on highways?

CITIUS uses the Highway Traffic Management System, or HTMS, and FASTag for traffic-management and toll-collection operations. HTMS includes intelligent traffic systems, 360-degree surveillance cameras and variable message signs for alerts and safety information, while FASTag accounted for a 98% simple average of FY26 toll collections across toll assets excluding SRTPL.

SRTPL recorded an 86% FASTag collection rate after FASTag was effectively implemented from January 2025, compared with the 98% FY26 average disclosed for the other toll assets. CITIUS does not provide toll-collection values or transaction volumes on the cited pages, but states that its systems use digital tools to support traffic management and monitoring.

CITIUS also uses Juno Viewer, a web-based pavement and asset-inventory repository, and Juno Jobs, its linked mobile application. These applications digitise fieldwork records for centralised work management and reporting, providing an operating record that can be used after a road condition is identified.

For toll and traffic data, CITIUS uses the Toll Analytic System, or TAS, and Automatic Traffic Counter and Classifier, or ATCC. TAS centralises and validates toll-plaza data, integrates live information through application programming interfaces, or APIs, and produces standardised reports and automated notifications, while ATCC provides traffic information.

How does CITIUS plan major highway maintenance?

CITIUS uses the Highway Development and Management Model, or HDM-4, to plan major-maintenance interventions. HDM-4 analyses inspection data, material-test results and traffic counts to prioritise repairs and forecast budgets according to traffic levels and road conditions.

iHAMS and HDM-4 have different disclosed functions. iHAMS assesses weekly visual footage against a digital twin to identify more than 100 defect types, while HDM-4 uses inspection, testing and traffic inputs to determine maintenance priorities and budget forecasts. The presentation does not state a maintenance budget, target repair time or asset-level condition result.

CITIUS places these systems within life-cycle asset-management capabilities covering diligence, technical planning, engineering, pavement quality assurance, operations, traffic and revenue, equipment, toll systems, safety and contracts. Its in-house asset-management workforce exceeded 360 professionals as of September 30, 2026, employed by the project manager, holding companies and project special-purpose vehicles.

The more-than-360 headcount covers the wider asset-management structure rather than a dedicated technology team. CITIUS says this in-house organisation is supported by the EAAA platform, and that the project manager is a 100% subsidiary of the sponsor and part of the sponsor group.

Which materials does CITIUS use for road upkeep?

CITIUS uses Glass Grid in major-maintenance works to delay reflection cracking and postpone major-maintenance cycles. It also uses polymer modified bitumen, or PMB, which the presentation says improves pavement performance and leads to lower carbon emissions.

Recycled asphalt pavement, or RAP, reuses milling material and reduces the cost of dense bituminous macadam, or DBM, according to the presentation. CITIUS also identifies cement grouted bituminous mix, or CGBM, using indigenously developed grout, but does not disclose usage volumes, road length or cost savings for any of these materials.

CITIUS is testing micro surfacing with RAP and fibre, as well as steel slag in bituminous mixes. Its National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, or NABL, accredited in-house transport vertical laboratory at Turbhe, Navi Mumbai, conducts research and testing on new technologies and materials and carries out quality-control work.

The materials programme is presented as being driven by life-cycle cost and sustainability considerations. CITIUS does not quantify carbon reductions from PMB, savings from RAP, or the performance impact of Glass Grid and CGBM, leaving the operating outcomes from each application undisclosed.

How does CITIUS work with road research institutions?

CITIUS lists the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati and the Central Road Research Institute, or CRRI, as research collaborators. These relationships sit alongside the Turbhe laboratory and support the company's stated use of emerging materials and in-house testing.

One CITIUS portfolio asset, JSEL, participated in a field demonstration of bio-bitumen technology for flexible pavement. Jointly developed by CSIR-CRRI and CSIR-IIP, the rice-straw-pyrolysis technology converts lignocellulosic biomass waste into a value-added road-construction material and has the potential to reduce India's import dependence for bitumen.

CITIUS does not state a timetable for commercial deployment of bio-bitumen across its portfolio, nor does it provide research budgets or contract values for the institutional collaborations. The disclosed work remains a field demonstration by JSEL rather than a reported portfolio-wide construction-material result.

The operating structure includes pavement and maintenance experience. Sandip Das has more than 28 years of experience including materials engineering, pavement design, maintenance and quality assurance, while Niraj Mohanty has more than 31 years of experience and manages operations and maintenance across 15 highway projects.

Conclusion

CITIUS combines weekly artificial-intelligence dashcam analysis, digital-twin comparisons, fieldwork records, toll and traffic data, maintenance modelling and materials testing in its highway operating framework. The central disclosed capability is iHAMS detecting more than 100 defect types, while HDM-4 separately uses inspection, testing and traffic information to prioritise major maintenance and forecast budgets.

The next issue to watch is whether CITIUS reports outcomes from these systems, including repair timing, pavement condition, maintenance cost or road availability, which are not quantified in the presentation. Its disclosed programme also includes continuing tests of RAP-based surfacing and steel slag, plus JSEL's bio-bitumen field demonstration, without a stated portfolio-wide deployment timetable.