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The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has launched the PRISM-SG portal to streamline approvals and inspections for steel girders used in road over bridges. The platform aims to reduce approval timelines from nearly 12 months to about three to four months by digitising documentation, inspections, and coordination between agencies. It brings all stakeholders, including Indian Railways, contractors, and inspection bodies, onto one system. The move is expected to improve transparency, reduce delays caused by manual processes, and support faster execution of critical bridge infrastructure projects.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has introduced a digital platform, PRISM-SG, to improve the approval process for steel girders used in road over bridges (ROBs). The system has been developed to address delays caused by fragmented and largely offline coordination between multiple authorities. Advertisement
PRISM-SG, which stands for Portal for Rail-Road Inspection and Stages Management Steel Girders, enables end-to-end digital handling of approvals, inspections, and documentation. The ministry explained that the portal is designed to bring all stakeholders, including Indian Railways, road authorities, contractors, fabricators, and third-party inspection agencies, onto a single platform to ensure smoother coordination.
Earlier, the approval process for steel girders involved multiple manual steps, including submission of documents, physical inspections, and repeated follow-ups with different departments. This often resulted in long delays, with timelines extending up to 10-12 months in many cases. With the introduction of the portal, the government expects this timeline to come down to around three to four months.
The platform covers key technical and compliance processes required for girder fabrication and installation. These include submission and approval of Quality Assurance Plans (QAPs), Welding Procedure Specification (WPS) documents, and stage-wise inspection reports. Such processes are critical to ensure the structural safety and quality of bridges, especially where roads cross railway lines.
Construction of ROBs requires several approvals from Indian Railways, including General Arrangement Drawings (GADs), structural clearances, and inspection certifications. While some of these approvals have already been digitised through existing railway systems, a significant portion of fabrication-related inspections and documentation was still handled offline. This gap often led to lack of real-time tracking and coordination issues between agencies.
The new portal addresses these gaps by offering features such as digital document submission, automated workflow tracking, query management, and audit trails. Officials indicated that the system allows real-time monitoring of project status and helps reduce communication gaps between departments. It also brings more accountability, as every stage of approval and inspection is recorded digitally.
The move is part of a broader push by the government to adopt digital tools in infrastructure development. Over the past few years, the focus has shifted towards improving project monitoring, reducing delays, and ensuring better utilisation of resources. Delays in approvals have been one of the key reasons for cost overruns and slow execution in highway and bridge projects.
Industry stakeholders have often pointed out that coordination between ministries, especially between road and railway authorities, has been a major bottleneck in ROB construction. By integrating these processes into a single digital system, the government is aiming to simplify procedures and reduce dependency on manual follow-ups.
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