New Delhi: Cracking down on poor quality work by highway builders, govt will ban them from bidding for national highway projects for two years from the date of a “major incident”, such as bridge and reinforced wall collapses and severe road damage, reports Dipak Dash.TOI has learnt road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has approved this condition in all fully govt-funded highway projects – which have the largest share of NH projects being implemented in the country. “Provision of ‘catastrophic’ damage or failure on part of contractors has been made in the contract document to trigger this action. This will be a big deterrent. The parameters are very objective. Currently, in most cases contractors are banned for a brief period and contractors take corrective measures at their own cost,” said a source.The ministry has taken this decision as it faces public ire for poor quality works and instances of newly built roads getting badly damaged even before these are opened for traffic.The ministry has informed Parliament that last year, there were 17 instances of collapse of structures, including on the Delhi-Vadodara Expressway, Dwarka Expressway, NH-48 (Gujarat), and NH-66 in Kerala. Meanwhile, Gadkari’s office has sought details of all show cause notices issued to contractors since Jan 2024, responses received from companies and the action taken so far.
