On January 14, 2025, a 28-year-old girl died and her husband suffered crucial accidents after the SUV crashed right into a divider on the newly-constructed Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME). The police officers mentioned that each have been sporting seatbelts and the automobile all of the sudden flipped over when the motive force utilized the brakes and the car hit the divider.
Per week later, on January 23, no less than 10 folks have been killed and greater than 15 sustained accidents after the truck they have been travelling in toppled and fell right into a 50-m-deep valley in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district. The accident happened close to the Gullapur village underneath the Yellapur taluk, which is a part of Nationwide Freeway 63, when the victims have been on their method to the Kumta market from Savanur to promote greens.
From the fractures or fissures that develop within the concrete slabs used for pavement development, floor undulations or deformations, potholes from water stagnation and uneven driving floor — a sequence of serious defects recognized in numerous Nationwide Freeway (NH) tasks throughout India from 2019-20 to 2023-24 have a direct bearing on the creation of ‘black spots’ or hazardous factors on the NH, the place accidents happen repetitively.
The data offered by the Minister of Street Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, in Rajya Sabha on April 2, in response to a question concerning freeway development high quality and measures to deal with deficiencies, listed out some 59 main damages or defects recognized on totally different nationwide highways in 15 states throughout this era. He additionally offered the main points of motion taken in these circumstances which incorporates the penalty imposed on the contractors.
Earlier, on March 6, in a convention on street security, Gadkari mentioned that engineers and consultants concerned in roadbuilding and the “substandard” detailed venture studies (DPRs) produced by them have been answerable for persevering with street accidents, the place India has among the many highest numbers on this planet. “A very powerful culprits are civil engineers. I don’t blame everyone, however after 10 years of my expertise, I’ve come to this conclusion. Culprits are those that are making DPRs. Due to small civil engineering errors, there are a whole lot of deaths,” mentioned Gadkari.
In keeping with the minister’s reply in Parliament, the defects are of primarily 4 classes, particularly, pavement points, retaining wall points, bridge and construction defects, and different development & upkeep deficiencies
The defects have been recognized by means of numerous inspections and audits carried out by consultants, executing companies such because the Nationwide Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the Nationwide Highways & Infrastructure Improvement Corp Ltd (NHIDCL), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the general public works departments (PWDs), and third-party auditors.
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For instance, in Arunachal Pradesh, a big retaining wall (RE wall) — which is designed to carry again soil, rocks or different materials – collapsed on the Papu-Yupia-Hoj-Potin part of NH-713A and NH-13 in 2021-22.
The contractor initiated rectification work and confronted a penalty of 5 per cent of the contract worth. In Andhra Pradesh, settlements in construction approaches on NH-71 and defects in RE wall development on NH-16 have been addressed by means of rectification work, with the restoration of
Rs 10.99 lakh in damages from the concessionaire within the latter case. Each tasks are underneath Bharatmala Pariyojna on Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM).
Settlements in highways imply displacement of the pavement floor or the underlying soil, which ends up in an uneven or depressed floor. Equally, floor undulations, which implies irregular floor deformations, in versatile and inflexible pavements on NH-9 and NH-4, respectively, in Andhra Pradesh have been rectified primarily based on methodologies recommended by the Central Street Analysis Institute (CRRI) and the Indian Institute of Expertise (IIT) Tirupati, together with recoveries totaling Rs 3,57,92,366 imposed on the EPC contractor for NH-9.
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A number of tasks skilled points with concrete pavements. In Chhattisgarh, cracks in cement concrete panels have been reported on NH-200 (New NH-130) and NH-30, with panel rectifications and replacements undertaken on the contractors’ expense. Comparable cracking issues affected tasks in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal on numerous NH sections, resulting in rectification work, prolonged Defect Legal responsibility Intervals (DLP), and, in some circumstances, contract terminations.
The Delhi-Vadodara Expressway encountered points corresponding to rutting and settlements throughout a number of packages in Haryana and Rajasthan. NHAI imposed penalties on contractors for delayed upkeep and engaged IIT Kharagpur for detailed research for everlasting rectification. A notable incident on the Amritsar-Jamnagar Financial Hall in Rajasthan concerned the failure of a nostril construction, which is designed to forestall erosion and injury to the freeway embankment, throughout bridge launching, leading to a Rs 1 crore penalty on the contractor and the debarment of fabrication and designer group for 2 years.
Aside from this, bridge infrastructure additionally confronted challenges. In Maharashtra, damages have been noticed within the slab of a serious bridge on NH-06 (New NH-53), requiring reconstruction primarily based on an audit by the Visvesvaraya Nationwide Institute of Expertise (VNIT), Nagpur. A minor bridge within the Andaman & Nicobar Islands skilled punching within the deck slab and different high quality points, resulting in rectification on the contractor’s expense and initiation of debarment proceedings.
These defects additionally spotlight the challenges inherent in large-scale infrastructure improvement corresponding to Nationwide Highways. India’s NH rely has considerably elevated from 91,287 km in 2014 to 1.46 lakh km at current.
