Matrix Geo Solutions has been awarded a contract worth Rs 30.7 million (mn) by North Western Railway to provide drone-based monitoring for the Luni Samdari Bhildi railway doubling project, covering a 271.97 km corridor across Rajasthan and Gujarat, with execution scheduled over 30 months. The mandate was announced in the past week and is intended to support systematic progress tracking across the long linear alignment. The contract was presented as part of routine procurement for construction oversight.

Under the agreement the company will deploy unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based systems to track construction progress across the alignment and conduct monthly aerial surveys using drones equipped with high-resolution geo-tagged video and GPS integrated metadata. The data will be processed to produce detailed maps and change detection reports that cover stages such as earthwork, ballast laying, track installation and bridge construction. The monitoring programme aims to create a continuous and structured audit trail of site activity that can be analysed over time.

Officials indicated that the drone-led monitoring approach is expected to reduce the need for frequent physical site inspections by nearly 50 per cent and shorten reporting timelines by approximately 25 per cent while offering near real-time visibility into construction progress. The system is designed to support faster decision-making, improve coordination among executing agencies and provide verifiable evidence of milestone completion for management and compliance purposes.

The deployment forms part of a wider shift towards integrating geospatial technologies into large infrastructure projects where continuous monitoring and data-driven oversight are increasingly critical. Track doubling initiatives require coordinated execution across multiple segments and remote monitoring tools help identify execution gaps, ease congestion on routes and support capacity enhancement for freight and passenger movement. The use of UAV-based systems is likely to reinforce transparency and standardised documentation for future projects.