Introduces liability clause to ensure better maintenance of roads built by states.
To build quality roads and increase their durability, the road transport and highways ministry has introduced a three-year defect liability period for national highways built and upgraded by the states.
During the period, a road contractor will have to bear the expenses of any repair required on a stretch built by him. “We have introduced a three-year defect liability period in all our projects implemented through state public works departments (PWDs). These projects either had no such period or at the most one year in some cases,” said a senior ministry official, who did not want to be identified.
The official added that there had been instances when roads had been damaged in the first few months after being constructed. The three-year period will ensure best-quality roads being built, as any road which stays for the stipulated three-year period will be a good quality road, they said.
As of now, roads built by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on the engineering procurement contract (EPC) mode have only a one-year defect liability period. In this mode, the government pays to the contractor for constructing roads.
Among other initiatives to ensure proper quality, the road transport ministry has also made a third-party quality check mandatory for material and highways being constructed through states.
“The quality check of the projects as of today is in-house and is done by the developer constructing the road. This quality check cannot be trusted fully,” said the official.
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Out of the 3.3 million km of roads in the country, only 70,000 km are national highways. Out of the 70,000 km, around 15,000 km are being developed and maintained by NHAI under the National Highways Development Programme and the rest being built and maintained by the road transport ministry through state public works departments.
To expedite the road projects, the ministry has also opened seven regional offices in Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Chennai and Bhopal to award road projects directly. Each region is being headed by a chief engineer.