Lok Sabha Question No. 1929 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-11
Subject: Quality of Road Construction Guidelines
Ministry: ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS
Asked by: Shri Anil Yeshwant Desai

be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  quality  of  roads  constructed  in  various  States  is  far below  the  required  standards  resulting  in  road  accidents,  if  so,  the details thereof;
- (b)  whether  the  Union  Government  has  issued  any  guidelines  to  the States to ensure construction of good quality roads in the States, if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Union Government will impose accountability on road construction  companies  apart  from  blacklisting,  such  as  recovery  of cost or compensation for damage to victims of road accidents and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS (SHRI NITIN JAIRAM GADKARI)

- (a)  to  (d)      The  Government  in  Ministry  of  Road  Transport  and Highways is primarily responsible for development and maintenance of National Highways (NHs). All efforts are made to ensure that the NHs are  constructed  as  per  quality  standards  stipulated  in  the  Indian

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1929

## ANSWERED ON 11 th  DECEMBER, 2025

## QUALITY OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION GUIDELINES

1929.  SHRI ANIL YASHWANT DESAI:

## Will the Minister of ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS

सड़क परिवहन औि िाजमार्ग मंत्री

Roads  Congress  (IRC)  specifications  and  codes.  To  ensure  that highway construction adheres to stipulated quality standards, Consultants  (Authority's  Engineer/  Independent  Engineers-  AE/IE)  are appointed by the executing agencies for day-to-day supervision of works at site. Officials of all stakeholders including State Governments/  Union  Territories  undertake  inspections  from  time  to time and ensure adherence of conformity of quality of the work done by the Concessionaire/ Contractors.

As  per  the  report  on  'Road Accidents in India' published by the Government  for  the  year  2023  based  on  data  received  from  States/ UTs, road accidents are multi-causal phenomenon and are the result of interplay of various factors. These can broadly be categorized into (i) human error, (ii) road condition/environment and (iii) vehicular condition.  The  number  of  accidents  due  to  sub-standard  quality  of roads is not reported in the report. However, the number of accidents on all categories of roads (including NHs) on account of potholes are reported to be 5,840 out of the total number of 4,80,583 accidents all over the country.

The Government has taken the following initiatives for improvement  of  quality  control  systems  in  implementation  of  NHs works: -: -

- Policy  for  Adoption  of  Automated  &  Intelligent  /Machine-aided
- i. Construction (AI-MC) in NH projects issued;
- ii. Assessments of road conditions through Network Survey Vehicle (NSV) mandated for all NHs and Expressway works at the time of completion and every six months thereafter, which is monitored through electronic platform. NSV system  for road condition assessment has further been revamped using analytics for enforcement of contractual provisions during Operation and Maintenance (O&M) through dedicated central cell;
- iii. Operationalization of a centralized system called NHAI One App for Monitoring and rectification of highway defects which enables geo-tagging of defects along with photographs;
- iv. Analysis of High-Resolution Imagery collected from Drone Surveys in Drone Analytics Monitoring System (DAMS) integrated with Artificial Intelligence/ Machine  Learning  algorithms  for periodic evaluation of progress and quality of ongoing NHs works from time to time;
- v. Deployment  of  Mobile  Quality  Control  Vans  (MQCVs)  equipped with  Non-Destructive  Testing  Equipment  on  pilot  basis  in  four States, namely in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha and Karnataka, for diagnostic  assessments  of  overall  health  and  quality  of  works from time to time during project implementation phases. Decision has been taken to diversify this initiative in some more States;
- vi. Deployment  of  Third  Party  Quality  Auditors  for  independent quality audits of NH works on a case-to-case basis.

Actions  against  defaulting  agencies  are  taken  as  per  the provisions  of  the  Contract/  Concession  agreement  in  case  of  any defaults. In addition to debarment/ blacklisting of defaulting agencies, penalties/ liquidated damages  are  also  levied  on  Contractor for damages/ sub-standard works. Sub-section (1) of Section 198A of the Motor  Vehicles  Act,  1988  provides  for  any  designated  authority, contractor, consultant or concessionaire responsible for the design or construction  or  maintenance  of  the  safety  standards  of  the  road  to follow such design, construction and maintenance standards, as may be prescribed by the Government from time to time. In case of failure to comply with stipulated standards for road design, construction and maintenance  which  results  in  death  or  disability,  the  designated authority,  contractor,  consultant  or  concessionaire  responsible  is levied  a  fine  up  to  one  lakh  rupees  payable  to  the  Motor  Vehicle Accident Fund constituted under section 164B of the Act.

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