New Delhi: In the rush to prioritise quantity in highway development, quality has, to some extent, been overlooked, Union road transport secretary V Umashankar said on Tuesday while addressing officers, highway builders and consultants.
His remarks come amid growing concerns from commuters over the poor riding comfort and construction quality of newly-built highways and expressways. “Highways are a growing sector, but their shelf life is very short. Globally, highway development has typically spanned a maximum of 30–40 years. We are likely to reach saturation in the next 15–20 years,” Umashankar said at the Highway Excellence Awards.
The secretary said rather than just increasing the numbers (in terms of construction), it’s important to ensure that the roads being built are of best quality and remain useful for years, only requiring maintenance.
Speaking at the event, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said that he gets applause for good progress of highway projects and also gets targeted for bad quality. “Like I get a good name for your work being the leader, I face the worst criticism in social media for potholes on highways and bad quality roads,” he added.
The minister said he was hopeful of the highway ministry achieving 100 km highway construction in a day in future when the programme to expand large number of single- and two-lane highways is taken up in the next two years. “We won’t compromise and can meet the target,” he said.
Earlier in the day, NHAI chairman Santosh Yadav said the highway authority has decided not to give provisional completion of projects to allow tolling and go ahead for inauguration, rather will prefer to take a couple of more months to address all deficiencies. “We won’t go ahead with opening of stretches with any deficiency. We would prefer a little delay and fix them rather than having problems soon after inauguration,” he added.
Yadav also asked officials to be better prepared for the rainy season. “All our good work gets washed away during monsoon when people complain about potholes or damaged stretches. There is a need to make arrangements for the rainy season and we all know what problems reoccur and how to deal with them,” he said.
His remarks come amid growing concerns from commuters over the poor riding comfort and construction quality of newly-built highways and expressways. “Highways are a growing sector, but their shelf life is very short. Globally, highway development has typically spanned a maximum of 30–40 years. We are likely to reach saturation in the next 15–20 years,” Umashankar said at the Highway Excellence Awards.
The secretary said rather than just increasing the numbers (in terms of construction), it’s important to ensure that the roads being built are of best quality and remain useful for years, only requiring maintenance.
Speaking at the event, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said that he gets applause for good progress of highway projects and also gets targeted for bad quality. “Like I get a good name for your work being the leader, I face the worst criticism in social media for potholes on highways and bad quality roads,” he added.
The minister said he was hopeful of the highway ministry achieving 100 km highway construction in a day in future when the programme to expand large number of single- and two-lane highways is taken up in the next two years. “We won’t compromise and can meet the target,” he said.
Earlier in the day, NHAI chairman Santosh Yadav said the highway authority has decided not to give provisional completion of projects to allow tolling and go ahead for inauguration, rather will prefer to take a couple of more months to address all deficiencies. “We won’t go ahead with opening of stretches with any deficiency. We would prefer a little delay and fix them rather than having problems soon after inauguration,” he added.
Yadav also asked officials to be better prepared for the rainy season. “All our good work gets washed away during monsoon when people complain about potholes or damaged stretches. There is a need to make arrangements for the rainy season and we all know what problems reoccur and how to deal with them,” he said.
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