NHAI Rolls Out New Safety Audits and Inspection Rules for Highways After Delhi-Dehradun Expressway Issues

The National Highways Authority of India has come up with guidelines for quality, safety, and event management of the national highway projects being launched. These guidelines will ensure that major projects will have to undergo auditing, and there will be increased inspection once the national highways begin operations. The National Highways Authority of India stated that the guidelines were launched on Friday. The National Highways Authority of India formulated these guidelines following an examination of previous protocols and experiences in recent launch events and laying of foundation stones. This massive move comes in the wake of the controversies faced by the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April. The Delhi-Dehradun Expressway witnessed several problems like potholes, cracks, and even cave-ins after it rained heavily.

Independent Audits are Mandatory for Big-Ticket Projects.

According to the proposed Independent Audits, greenfield expressways, high-speed corridors, special projects, and any project above ₹2,500 crore will have Independent Audits commissioned. Such Independent Audits will be conducted by a trustworthy external agency or IITs and NITs, among others. Such Independent Audits will focus on the expected traffic flow once the highway is operational. Other areas of the Independent Audits will include the drainage system.

Inspections Weekly and Monitoring of Media are Mandatory Now

Moreover, inspections by the project manager of the contractors and the team leader of the supervision consultant are mandatory now. The inspections would occur every week for the initial three months and thereafter every two weeks for another three months. The inspection would include checking the pavement quality, drainage, safety measures, and slope of embankments. Route patrol vehicles would continue to monitor the section of highway and geo-tag any defect that may need fixing. The media monitoring teams of NHAI have been asked to monitor the media coverage post these incidents and draft counter strategies for the media reports which NHAI feels are inaccurate.