NABL-accredited classified traffic volume counts, origin-destination, turning movement, speed-delay and axle load surveys for highway DPRs across India
A traffic survey measures how many vehicles use a road, what type they are, where they are going, and how heavily they are loaded. In India these surveys are governed principally by IRC SP 19, IRC SP 72 and IRC 106, and their output — classified volume, AADT, vehicle damage factor and design traffic in MSA — is the mandatory input for pavement design, DPR preparation, toll revenue modelling and capacity augmentation proposals.
A traffic survey is the structured measurement of traffic on a road section. It is not one test but a family of surveys, each answering a different question:
NKMPV conducts all of the above under NABL accreditation TC-14144. Counting is done by video-AI ATCC rather than pneumatic tubes or manual enumerators, which is what allows a verifiable 17-class breakdown per IRC SP 19 and a re-auditable video record if a client or arbitration panel disputes the figures.
Surveys are delivered anywhere in India. Our field team mobilises to the corridor, installs and powers the equipment, runs the continuous 7-day × 24-hour count required for a defensible AADT, and returns a DPR-ready report with the raw data appended.
Every traffic survey we deliver reports the parameters below. Which subset applies depends on the survey type commissioned; a full DPR traffic package normally includes all of them.
| Parameter | Value / Range | Unit | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classified Volume Count | Hourly and daily counts across 17 IRC vehicle classes, per direction | vehicles/hour, vehicles/day | IRC SP 19 / SP 72 |
| AADT (Annual Average Daily Traffic) | Seasonally adjusted daily traffic derived from 7-day continuous count | vehicles/day | IRC SP 19 Cl. 5 |
| PCU Conversion | Passenger car unit equivalents applied per vehicle class for capacity analysis | PCU/day | IRC 106:1990 |
| Peak Hour Factor | Highest hourly flow and its ratio to daily total, per direction | ratio | IRC 106:1990 |
| Directional Split | Share of traffic by direction across the count period | % | IRC SP 19 |
| Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF) | Computed from axle load spectrum for each commercial vehicle class | standard axles/vehicle | IRC 37:2018 / IRC 81 |
| Design Traffic | Cumulative standard axles over the design life, from CVPD, VDF, growth rate and lane distribution | MSA | IRC 37:2018 Cl. 4 |
| Origin-Destination Matrix | Trip matrix by zone with trip purpose and commodity where surveyed | trips/day | IRC SP 19 |
| Turning Movement Count | Arm-by-arm and movement-by-movement counts at intersections, by class | vehicles/hour | IRC SP 41 |
| Journey Speed and Delay | Average journey speed, running speed and delay points along the corridor | km/h, seconds | IRC SP 19 |
| Traffic Growth Rate | Historic and projected growth applied to the design horizon | % per annum | IRC 108 / IRC 37 |
| Video Evidence Archive | Time-stamped video retained for re-audit and dispute resolution | days of footage | NKMPV QA protocol |
Manual for Survey, Investigation and Preparation of Road Projects — traffic survey methodology and 17-class vehicle classification
Guidelines for the Design of Flexible Pavements for Low Volume Rural Roads — traffic input requirements
Guidelines for Capacity of Urban Roads in Plain Areas — PCU factors and capacity analysis
Guidelines for the Design of Flexible Pavements — design traffic in MSA from survey data
Guidelines for Strengthening of Flexible Road Pavements — axle load survey and VDF derivation
Guidelines on Design of At-Grade Intersections — turning movement count requirements
Guidelines for Traffic Forecast on Highways — growth rate estimation
Traffic Census on Non-Urban Roads — classical census methodology
Multi-lane camera array with on-device AI classification
17-class IRC SP 19 classification at 95%+ accuracy, 24h continuous, per-direction and per-lane
CalibratedPiezo weigh-pad array
Axle-by-axle static and rolling load capture for VDF computation per IRC 81
CalibratedDoppler radar, handheld
Spot speed measurement for speed-delay and free-flow speed studies
Calibrated1 Hz GNSS logger with journey-time software
Moving-observer journey speed and delay profiling along corridors
CalibratedField-deployable, battery-backed
Uninterrupted 7-day unattended operation on corridors without mains power
Field-verifiedOffline data-capture forms
O-D interviews and roadside questionnaire capture with GPS-stamped records
N/AWe review the project brief and corridor drawings to fix survey station locations. Stations must sit on straight, level sections clear of intersections, bus bays and toll plazas that would distort flow. Each station is GPS-recorded and agreed with the client or consultant before mobilisation.
The field team travels to site — anywhere in India — and installs the camera array, mast and solar power assembly. Lane geometry is calibrated into the AI classifier so vehicle classes and directions map correctly to the IRC SP 19 categories.
Counting runs uninterrupted for a full seven days to capture weekday, weekend and night variation. A shorter count cannot produce a defensible AADT, which is why IRC SP 19 requires the full week; we do not shorten it.
Where the scope includes VDF or trip distribution, axle load pads are deployed on a sample of commercial vehicles and enumerators run roadside O-D interviews in parallel with the automated count.
AI classification output is validated against the retained video for sample hours. Any class-confusion is corrected and the correction factor is documented in the report — this is the step that survives client scrutiny and arbitration.
Validated counts are seasonally adjusted to AADT, converted to PCU, combined with the axle load spectrum to derive VDF, and projected across the design life to give design traffic in MSA per IRC 37.
The final report is issued under NABL scope TC-14144 with raw data, hourly tables, class-wise summaries, station photographs and methodology appended. Video evidence is archived and available on request.
The core survey. Every vehicle crossing the station is counted and assigned to one of the 17 IRC SP 19 classes — from two-wheelers and auto-rickshaws through to multi-axle trucks and oversized vehicles. Counts are reported hourly, by direction, for the full seven days. Outputs feed AADT, PCU-based capacity analysis and the commercial vehicles per day (CVPD) figure used in pavement design.
Roadside interviews establish trip origin, destination, purpose and, for freight, commodity. The result is a zone-to-zone trip matrix. O-D data is what justifies a bypass or realignment: it shows how much of the traffic through a town has no business there and would divert if an alternative existed. It is normally sampled rather than exhaustive, with the sample rate stated in the report.
At intersections, total volume is not enough — the design depends on how traffic distributes across each approach and each movement. TMC records left, through and right movements for every arm, by vehicle class, usually at peak hours. It is the direct input to at-grade intersection design under IRC SP 41 and to grade-separation justification.
Using a GPS-instrumented probe vehicle driven repeatedly along the corridor, we record journey speed, running speed and the location and duration of every delay. The gap between journey and running speed quantifies congestion; the delay locations identify the bottlenecks worth treating. This is the standard evidence base for level-of-service assessment and for prioritising capacity works.
Commercial vehicles are sampled onto portable weigh-pads and each axle load recorded. The load spectrum is converted to vehicle damage factor using the fourth-power relationship in IRC 37. Because MSA scales directly with VDF, and because overloading in India is routine, a measured VDF frequently differs sharply from the code default — which is precisely why the survey is required rather than assumed.
The chain is: classified count → seasonally adjusted AADT → commercial vehicles per day → multiplied by measured VDF → projected over the design life at the applicable growth rate → distributed to the design lane. The result is cumulative standard axles in million standard axles (MSA), the single number that drives pavement thickness under IRC 37:2018. Every step is shown in our reports so a reviewing engineer can reproduce the figure.
In our experience the four recurring reasons a traffic annexure is sent back are: a count shorter than the seven continuous days IRC SP 19 requires; ADT presented as AADT with no seasonal adjustment; an assumed VDF where a site-specific axle load survey was required; and classification collapsed to fewer than the full 17 classes so CVPD cannot be verified. All four are avoidable, and all four are why we run the full protocol rather than a reduced one.
Reports are issued under NABL accreditation TC-14144 to ISO/IEC 17025:2017. NHAI, state PWDs, highway consultants and arbitration tribunals accept them without third-party revalidation — an unaccredited count can be rejected at bill-stage.
Tube counters miss stationary and overtaking vehicles and cannot distinguish a 3-axle truck from a bus. Our video-AI system classifies to the full IRC SP 19 17-class schedule at 95%+ accuracy and keeps the footage for re-audit.
Every count is backed by time-stamped footage. When a concessionaire, lender or tribunal challenges the numbers, the raw evidence exists — the single most common reason clients move to us from manual enumeration.
We run the complete week that IRC SP 19 requires rather than extrapolating from a 3-day or 12-hour count. Shortened counts are the most frequent cause of a traffic annexure being returned for revision.
Our field team deploys anywhere in India, including remote and greenfield corridors without mains power, using solar-backed unattended stations. Distance from our Pinjore base is not a constraint.
Volume count, axle load, O-D, turning movement and speed-delay are delivered by the same team under one scope — so the VDF, AADT and MSA figures in your DPR are internally consistent rather than stitched together from different vendors.
Accreditation & Coverage
NKMPV Research and Development LLP is accredited by NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 under certificate TC-14144. Every Traffic Survey report we issue carries that accreditation — the difference between a report your client accepts and one that gets returned at bill-stage.
For field work, our engineers and instruments mobilise anywhere in India — highway corridors, bridges, plants and greenfield alignments included. You get the same NABL-scope reporting on site as you would in the laboratory.
Distance is not a constraint for laboratory testing. Send samples to our Pinjore laboratory and receive the digital report on completion — the route most of our out-of-region clients use.
These are locations where we have completed projects — not the boundary of our service area. We mobilise across India on request. See full coverage & project locations →
NKMPV Research and Development LLP is accredited by NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 under certificate TC-14144, which covers Traffic Survey. Accreditation matters because NHAI, MoRTH, PWD, and most private clients will only accept test reports issued under a valid NABL scope — an unaccredited report can be rejected at bill-stage. Ask any lab for its certificate number and scope before you book; ours is TC-14144 and is verifiable on the NABL India portal.
Our laboratory is at Pinjore, Haryana, within same-day reach of Chandigarh, Panchkula, Mohali, Ambala and the wider Tri-City. If you are further away, distance is not a constraint: our field team travels to site anywhere in India for on-site work, and for laboratory tests you can courier samples to the Pinjore lab and receive the report digitally. Clients across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi-NCR, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh already work with us this way.
Yes. NKMPV operates pan-India. We have delivered projects across Chandigarh, Panchkula, Mohali, Ambala, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Hisar and beyond, and we mobilise to greenfield and remote corridors on request. The 18 locations listed on our site are the places we have already worked — not the limit of where we go.
Send us the project details — location, quantity, and the standard you need to comply with — and you get a written quotation, usually within one working day. Pricing depends on sample count, site access and mobilisation distance, so we quote per project rather than publishing a fixed rate. Call +91-82953-60108 or use the quote form; every quotation states the applicable IS/IRC standard and the NABL scope the work falls under.
Need Traffic Survey done under NABL scope TC-14144?
