Kamal Ghorui
New Delhi: Amid the increased pace of construction and the laying of new road and rail corridors, the PMO has directed the road transport and railway ministries to introduce independent third-party audits to ensure high-quality work. They have also been asked to eliminate delays in project execution.TOI has learnt that PM Narendra Modi has also asked the road transport ministry to study Golden Quadrilateral-era construction practices, taking note of why there were very few quality-related complaints during the execution of the country’s first flagship highway development programme.PMO has also suggested that the ministry study the practice of third-party independent audits in Indonesia, which has institutionalised the mechanism to improve quality and accountability in large infrastructure projects. Last year, Malaysia too introduced “external audits” for the purpose.Both ministries have been directed to take measures for faster movement of trains and vehicles on their corridors, considering the high investment being made in these sectors. As per the directives, road ministry will identify constraints and gaps that result in average speed of freight trucks on high-speed corridors being around 50 kmph as against the desired speed of 70 kmph and address them. Similarly, railways will set phased targets for increasing train speed on corridors from 110 kmph to 130 kmph and further to 160 kmph and above 200 kmph.Officials involved in highway projects admitted the need to focus on quality issues considering that the next phase of highway development will have more expressways and economic corridors for faster movement of freight and passengers.They added that ministry has already identified issues relating to quality and started the process to address them. Revising the timeline for construction of highways in contract documents from the current 2-2.5 years to three years and doing away with the provision of bonus to contractors for early completion of works are some of the first steps being taken.Engineers who have been involved in both GQ and current highway projects said that though the scale of construction during that phase was lower, the monitoring of material and work quality was stringent. “The authority engineers and consultants were mostly from abroad, and they wouldn’t compromise on quality. There were big and credible highway builders, and even govt engineers were strict when it came to quality,” said a former NHAI member.In fact, the chief of a major highway construction firm, while participating in a meeting on quality improvement chaired by top officials, had shared how govt engineers and consultants wouldn’t budge on any pressure to compromise on quality during implementation of GQ.“Objective and strict monitoring of quality of material and construction by field staff is the only solution. We must give enough time for preparation of project reports and construction rather than rushing for completion,” said an official overseeing the sector.A former director general of roads said the quality of construction has taken a backseat with the sudden increase in number of highway builders, including many that were earlier into subcontracting and maintenance contracts.“Good engineers and independent consultants supervising projects face pressure from different quarters over being strict and often contractors complain against them. There should be clarity — that the authorities will not spare those into mischief-making and will stand by competent govt employees and consultants. We also need to have more credible quality testing agencies that don’t compromise at any cost,” he added.
