Question : Complaints about NHs

(a) whether the Government is committed to expand the National Highways (NHs) and fixed a per day target for expeditious completion of work;

(b) if so, whether the Government is aware that there are many complaints about use of inferior quality material for constructing NHs by the concerned agencies;

(c) if so, the details thererof;

(d) whether the Government is aware that there are also complaints about delay in construction ignoring the road safety norms and inferior quality toll services and if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether the Government is considering a national level monitoring cell to check and monitor the national and State agencies relating to construction of NHs;

(f) if so, the details and the salient features thereof along with the manner and extent to which it will be effective to monitor the projects of NHs; and

(g) the time by which the final decision is likely to be taken in this regard?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE
MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS

(SHRI MANSUKH L. MANDAVIYA)
(a) Ministry is committed to expand the National Highways (NHs) and fixed the target of 15000 km for completion which comes out to be 41.09 km per day during the financial year 2017-18.

(b) to (d) Various complaints alongwith the action taken by the ministry regarding the quality of construction work, use of inferior quality material, delay in construction ignoring the road safety norms and inferior quality toll services on National Highways (NHs) is given at Annexure-I.

(e) to (g) As such no National Level Monitoring Cell is under formation in the Ministry. However, There is a well-established mechanism for monitoring/testing of quality of construction /development of work of NHs by engaging a Consultancy firm of repute as Supervision Consultant / Independent Consultant / Authority Engineer. They supervise / monitor the quality of work as per procedures laid down in various codes published by Indian Roads Congress (IRC), manuals & Ministry’s specifications for Road and Bridge works, etc. The routine inspections are also done by Engineers on regular basis to assess quality of construction and maintenance of road. Consultants & National Level Project Monitors are also being empaneled for conducting Independent Quality Audit on the ongoing National Highways Development Projects. These agencies/monitors act as a third party independent body to carry out quality audit of various project, over and above monitoring of quality of road independently by Supervision Consultant / Independent Consultant / Authority Engineer /officers of Ministry/NHAI.