NEW DELHI: Amid growing concerns over poor upkeep of highway stretches, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to go for long-term contracts for their maintenance. It will set separate timelines for fixing different kinds of road damage — such as, 24 to 48 hours for filling potholes and 2-7 days for treating corrugation.
Senior NHAI officials said all new maintenance works will be output and performance-based contracts (OPBC) for five years compared to the current norm of one year.
Under this mechanism, NHAI will be entitled to cut payments if contractors fail to rectify or maintain spots and stretches within the prescribed timeline. They said long-term maintenance contracts will ensure continuity and avoid the need for inviting bids every year, which sometimes get delayed due to technical reasons.
Sources said as per the new maintenance norms, the agency concerned will have to fix problems of road cracks within 7-15 days, rutting in 15-30 days, edge deformation in 7-15 days and unstable slopes in 2-7 days. The issue of maintenance is a major concern in the case of highway stretches that are with NHAI or are back with them from private players, after the end of contract period. “We are strengthening the maintenance vertical in the organisation. Fund is not an issue at all. There will be rigorous monitoring of the maintenance works through our inhouse mobile app and these will be kept as record,” said an NHAI official.
TOI has learnt NHAI’s inhouse mobile app is now being used only by its officials, contractors, maintenance and supervising entities to report problems and also for monitoring. At a later stage, the public will be allowed to use it for informing any issue with the road condition. The app was recently launched by road transport and highways minister
Nitin Gadkari at a meeting of all state PWD ministers in Bhopal.