To ensure qualitative monitoring of highway projects, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has placed a limit on the maximum number of projects that can be assigned to an engineer of consultancy firms. A maximum of 10 projects of consultancy firms can be assigned to the construction or maintenance of national highway projects. NHAI said on Thursday.
The decision will apply after 60 days, the consultancy firms will provide time to make appropriate adjustments. Officials said the consultancy firm working as an independent engineer, authority engineer or supervision advisor was providing a lot of projects to a specified ‘engineer’, as the quality of monitoring was compromised.
The decision was taken three weeks after an incident in Kerala on May 19, with a section of National Highway -66 in Kuriad in Malappuram district, which led to a debate on the quality of construction of national highways. NHAI suspended its project director and abolished the service of a site engineer in the case. Recruitors and independent engineers were also suspended from participating in future dialects and a reason was issued in the case.
The role of an engineer is important in the construction of national highways. Compliance with specifications and contract provisions is mainly controlled and supervised by the team of advisors through a nominated engineer handed over to a particular project.
“Due to a large number of projects at hand, the nominated ‘engineer’ may not be able to fulfill contractual obligations, which defeat the objective of qualitative and quantitative monitoring of projects,” said in a statement, “the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (Morth) said in a statement.
The Ministry of Highways said that caping of per projects per ‘engineer’ will increase operational efficiency and ensure high quality implementation as well as maintenance of highways. This step will set a long way to ensure the experience of safe, smooth and easy traveling on national highways across the country.
The ministry said, “‘Engineer’ nominated from the counseling firm needs to visit the project site set every month and provide input in the monthly progress report as per the consultation and civil contract provisions. The restriction of maximum 10 projects after 60 days will be effective after 60 days to provide time to consultation firms to make proper adjustments during this period.”
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The ministry said that Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode also include detailed segments in guidelines for consultancy firms to implement and maintain national highway projects. The blocks include the provisions of the delegation of the appointment and responsibilities of independent engineers/authority engineers.
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