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Abstract
In India, the large road network of about 3.3 million km length, created at a huge cost of approximately Rs. 5,20,000 crore is the life line of the country. It provides accessibility to different areas for movement of freight and passenger traffic across the country. The entire road network is capacity constraint and structurally deficient due to lack of timely maintenance, rehabilitation and upgradation. This has adversely affected the traffic movement, resulting into higher operating costs and delays.

Maintenance and upgradation of such a large network is a challenging task because of the logistics and constraints of resources. There is a need to manage the network more efficiently in a scientific manner. The most important aspect lacking is the application of information system. Therefore there is a need to establish a centralized facility where information on road and road transportation can be utilized for the development of effective and efficient maintenance and rehabilitation measures and for planning upgradation strategies. The information which is available in bits and pieces with various agencies responsible for road construction and maintenance gets lost due to disorganized manner of its availability. Therefore there is a need for centralized platform which can meet this requirement.

CRRI is proposing to initiate a pilot scale project to establish the data center for roads and roads transport information management system. The GIS based pavement management system would eventually lead to the development of the frame work for GIS based Road Information Management System (RIMS) and pavement maintenance management system (PMMS). This paper reviews the role of GIS in pavement management system.