(a) whether the Government has held any agency responsible for the unsatisfactory ongoing work, poor quality of rural roads and lack of proper maintenance of these roads;
(b) if so, the details thereof during the last three years and the current year, State/ UT-wise;
(c) the names of the agencies against whom action has been taken, State/UT-wise; and
(d) the outcome of the said action?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI RAM KRIPAL YADAV)
(a)to(d) As per the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) Guidelines and Operations Manual, ensuring the quality of the road works is responsibility of the State Governments, who are implementing the Programme. To this end, all works must be effectively supervised. The Quality Control Register prescribed by the NRRDA to operationalise the provisions of the mandatory testing prescribed under the specifications are invariably to be maintained for each of the road works. It is also prescribed that payment shall not be made to the Contractor unless the tests have been conducted as per the prescribed procedure and the results have been found to be satisfactory. A three-tier Quality Management mechanism is envisaged under the PMGSY. The first tier of quality management mechanism is in-house quality control system of the Executing Agency whereas, the second tier of quality management mechanism will be independent quality assurance system operationalized by the State Government. Therefore, the State Governments would be responsible for the first two-tiers of the Quality Management Structure. The third tier is envisaged as independent quality management mechanism operationalised by the NRRDA, as such, this tier would be enforced by NRRDA through the National Quality Monitors (NQMs.)
The quality of road work is graded under three categories viz., “Satisfactory” (S), Satisfactory Requiring improvement” (SRI), and “Unsatisfactory” (U). In the case of road works graded as SRI and U, the concerned State Government has to ensure that the contractor replaces the material or rectifies the workmanship (as the case may be) within a reasonable time period.
Action Taken Reports of the road works graded as Satisfactory Requiring Improvement (SRI) and Unsatisfactory by the State Quality Monitors are monitored by the respective State Governments. Similarly, for road works graded as Satisfactory Requiring Improvement (SRI) and Unsatisfactory on the basis of observations of National Quality Monitors, the Action Taken Reports for such cases, submitted by respective States are monitored by National Rural Roads Development Agency.
As regards, proper maintenance of road works under PMGSY, all projects under the programme are covered by a five-year maintenance contract along with the construction contract, with the same contractor. During the initial five years maintenance period (defect liability period) the contractor is required to maintain the roads to the defined serviceable standards and responsible for rectifying all defects. After the completion of defect liability period of five years, the roads are transferred to the respective States for maintenance.
A statement containing details of inspections conducted by State Quality Monitors (SQMs) and National Quality Monitors (NQMs) during the last three years and current years is given at Annexure.
The States implement the programme through respective State Rural Roads Development Agencies. States being the Executive Agencies, details about Action Taken against the erring Contracting agencies are not maintained Centrally, in the Ministry.
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