Tightening highway maintenance norms for NE

Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, while laying the foundation stone for six National Highway projects in Meghalaya with a total investment of Rs 3,214 crore, signalled a continued push by the central government to improve connectivity in the northeast region to boost trade, commerce, and tourism. Ironically, poor highway maintenance in the region remains a critical challenge despite massive infrastructure funding by the central government. Undue delay in construction of several ongoing NH projects has added to the woes of the commuters in the region, but persistence of the problem highlights a grim reality of the issue not getting adequate attention from the National Highway Authority of India and agencies like the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation. The central government insists that development, maintenance and safety provisions of any section of NH located in the region are designed as per relevant Indian Roads Congress standards/guidelines and Ministry of Road Transport & Highways policy guidelines. However, most contractors, who are awarded the contracts, lack adequate experience of construction of highways in a region with fragile terrain and fail to employ the correct road engineering to ensure long-lasting highways. A poor oversight mechanism and lack of adequate accountability allow such glaring gaps in highway construction and maintenance in the region. Construction quality being of the highest standard is crucial to reduce maintenance expenditure and the long-term financial burden of highway upkeep. As the region is located in one of the heaviest rainfall zones, the highway assets are highly vulnerable to seasonal floods, landslides and erosion. The highway construction in NE states, therefore, cannot be seen through a narrow prism of project cost and target dates of linear infrastructure; it must be envisioned as climate-resilient corridors, the durability of which is critical to socio-economic development in the region. The over-emphasis of highway projects as strategic corridors often ends up providing a shield for the contractors to hide behind to evade rigorous public scrutiny and accountability. This calls for the government to facilitate stronger and more robust public scrutiny so that they can bring to the notice of the government any shortcomings in construction quality right from the start of the work. Mere provision of the grievance window is not going to bring about the desired change in the ground situation. If the authorities sit on grievances and fail to seek accountability from officials and contractors regarding deviation in construction norms and poor maintenance, then the grievance redressal mechanism, be it offline or online, is bound to fail. Recurrence of construction norm violations or poor quality of construction work, despite the imposition of penal action, including blacklisting of contractors, imposition of penalties, etc., raises questions about the effectiveness of current deterrent measures. It also exposes the uncomfortable reality that existing punitive measures are too weak to discipline the erring contractors for many of whom the penalty amount is often too little and can be absorbed in the project budget without impacting the profit margin much. As long as deterrent actions largely remain a mere administrative exercise, corrupt and unscrupulous contractors will continue to compromise with construction quality and maintenance norms. Long delays of highway projects also lead to cost overruns, the burden of which is ultimately passed on to the taxpayers. As allocation of funds for development and maintenance of NHs are made state/agency-wise and not project-wise, this leaves a structural gap in resource allocations for maintenance. The flexibility in resource utilisation by agencies concerned, such as NHIDCL or the state Public Works Department, often leads to maintenance work getting delays in respect of projects. If maintenance funds are allocated project-wise, it will make it possible to undertake routine repair work so that chronic delays in maintenance do not worsen the minor surface potholes into deep craters and holes posing a barrier to smooth highway movement. When the craters are filled with water during rains, the drivers of heavy vehicles suddenly apply the brake or slow down the vehicle, triggering a cascade of traffic gridlock and slowing down vehicle movement for a longer stretch than the damaged portion. Adequate budget provision is essential to ensure steady fund flow for maintenance work. If the maintenance funds are tied to specific projects, then it will prevent diversion of maintenance funds to any other projects. For providing some degree of flexibility to the agencies mandated with the maintenance of highways, a certain amount can be earmarked for statewide work, but allocating a higher percentage of the maintenance fund for each project, depending on the length, traffic load and socio-economic and strategic importance, is crucial to ensure that no highway repair work in the region is delayed due to non-availability of the required fund. Strengthening the monitoring system is crucial to ensure that allocated funds do not remain unutilised or underutilised for routine maintenance work. Transparency of tech-driven oversight mechanisms can make highway maintenance fully accountable.