59 instances of major deficiencies found in national highways since 2019: Nitin Gadkari

Maharashtra reported 16 instances of deficiencies in the national highways, followed by 11 in Rajasthan and 7 in Uttar Pradesh

NEW DELHI: A total of 59 instances of major deficiencies in national highway construction including cave-in have been reported from across the country since 2019-20, union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Gadkari said all efforts are made to ensure that the National Highways (NHs) are constructed as per stipulated quality standards. (Parveen Kumar/HT/Representative image)

Responding to a question on the expansion of the national highways and the efforts to maintain quality, Gadkari said all efforts are made to ensure that the National Highways (NHs) are constructed as per stipulated quality standards.

According to data tabled by the minister, Maharashtra reported 16 instances of deficiencies in the national highways, followed by 11 in Rajasthan and 7 in Uttar Pradesh.

Encashment of ₹11.79 crore of bank guarantee for non-rectification of defects of the project pertaining to four-laning of Kutchery Chowk to Bijupara Section of NH 75 in Jharkhand was the highest amount of penalty imposed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for these deficiencies.

In another instance, NHAI slapped a fine of ₹3.58 crore to the contractor for the project of four-laning of the Vijayawada–Machilipatnam section of NH-9 in Andhra Pradesh. Other than this, there were instances of contracts being terminated due to underperformance and relaying work done by the contractors in addition to paying fines.

In his written response to the question by Kerala MP Jebi Mather Hisham, Gadkari said the national highway network has grown from 91,287 km in March, 2014 to 1,46,204 km at present.

“With increased budgetary allocation over the years, quality of roads has improved substantially. Length of the four-lane and above NH network has increased by 2.5 times from about 18,371 km in 2014 to about 48,430 km. National High Speed Corridors / Expressways in about 2,474 km length have already been operationalized. The proportion of less than two-lane NHs has decreased from 30% to 9% of the total NH network. The above developments have increased logistics efficiency as well as improved the regional connectivity and accessibility to the NHs across the country,” he said.