Ministers launched a new portal to digitise approvals and inspections for road over bridges. The Portal for Rail-Road Inspection and Stages Management - Steel Girders (PRISM-SG) was unveiled in New Delhi as a joint initiative by the ministries for road transport and for railways and communications. The launch was presented as a step to enhance efficiency, transparency and inter-agency coordination in infrastructure delivery.

The portal has been developed to digitise key approval and inspection processes related to the construction of road over bridges and to include the Quality Assurance Plan (QAP), Welding Procedure Specification Sheet (WPSS) and fabrication stage inspection of steel girders. It provides end-to-end online submission of documents, digital scrutiny, mechanisms for raising and resolving queries, formal approvals and scheduling of inspections. The platform permits uploading of inspection reports, photographs and test results with a complete audit trail.

Previously, construction of road over bridges required multiple approvals from Indian Railways, with general arrangement drawings and structural drawings processed through an existing RRCAS portal while processes related to QAP, WPSS and fabrication inspections remained largely offline. That mixture of online and physical procedures often caused delays and limited real-time tracking and coordination among stakeholders. The portal is intended to address those gaps and to centralise records and communication.

The integrated digital platform brings together road owning departments, Indian Railways, contractors, fabricators and inspection agencies on a single system. It is expected to support transparency through timestamped actions and central monitoring dashboards and to facilitate accountability through traceable workflows. The portal is designed to allow officials to monitor progress and to intervene where necessary.

Officials indicated the initiative will reduce the approval and inspection timeline from 12 months to about three to four months, improving project efficiency and accountability. The change is expected to play a critical role in ensuring timely completion of road over bridges and rail bridges and in strengthening infrastructure delivery and enhancing connectivity across the country. Continued monitoring of the portal is expected to further improve delivery.