India Makes Machine Control Mandatory on Highways, and Trimble’s Dealers Are Ready

At bauma CONEXPO INDIA, Spry Technocon and SITECH India presented Trimble’s connected construction workflow as the answer to NHAI’s new AI-MC directive

In August, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) issued a directive requiring automated and intelligent machine-aided construction (AI-MC) on major highway developments. For contractors, that turns machine control from an option into a condition of the job.

Trimble used bauma CONEXPO INDIA 2026, held at the India Expo Centre in Greater Noida from 15 to 18 September, to position itself and its dealers as the partners for that transition. At its booth, authorised distributors Spry Technocon and SITECH India showed how Trimble’s design, positioning, machine control and field analytics work as one digital workflow, linking design data from the office directly to machines on site and sending field data back.

Already on Indian highways

The dealers have deployed Trimble Grade Control, Paving, Compaction and Trimble Earthworks systems on highway and road projects. Trimble lists four current deployments:

• NH-146B Sandalpur-Nasrullaganj Bypass, Madhya Pradesh: 43.2 km, about ₹881 crore;
• NH-516C Visakhapatnam Port Connectivity, Andhra Pradesh: 12.66 km, about ₹554 crore;
• Nashik Ring Road, Maharashtra: 7.02 km, about ₹625 crore;
• Thatchur-Punnapakkam to Thiruvallur Bypass, Tamil Nadu: a six-lane greenfield highway.

A highlight at the show was an AI-MC compaction solution engineered in India, supported by Trimble’s 300,000 sq ft R&D centre in Chennai, dedicated to cloud, AI and analytics.

“We are witnessing India undertake infrastructure projects of unprecedented scale and complexity,” said John Whitehead, Vice President of Sales, APAC, at Trimble. “Technology is evolving from simply controlling individual machines to connecting the entire construction workflow.”

Vivek Bansal, CEO of Spry Technocon, stressed the role of local teams in turning Trimble’s ecosystem “into real project outcomes”, from highways to marine infrastructure.

With NHAI’s directive in force, the competition among machine control suppliers in India is likely to be decided in the field, by the dealers who can install, calibrate and support systems fastest.

India Makes Machine Control Mandatory on Highways, and Trimble’s Dealers Are Ready published on The HeavyQuip Magazine.