[JS Kwt]

Up to Rs 10 CRORE FINE on firms in case of DEFECTIVE ROADS causing ACCIDENTS !!

Welcome move by the NHAI
Finally someone will belt these Shoddy Road Contractors !
Certainly a move in the right direction.

For the first time, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued a policy of graded penalty, including high fine and ban on contractors to bid for future projects for accidents and deaths caused by structural collapse or defects in design, construction or maintenance of the stretches.

These agencies are now liable to pay a fine of Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore and they will not be allowed to bid for any NH project for three years for such failures claiming any human life. The company concerned has to bear the expenses for carrying out rectification.

Even the consultants engaged in such works will have to cough up penalties and face debarment. In case of major failure causing death/s, the consultancy firms will have to pay Rs 40 lakh as fine and they won’t be allowed to bid for two years. Their key personnel will not be engaged for any NHAI work for three years.

Source

[gkveda]

Welcome move by Government. But, is it going to solve the problem? In my opinion, not even 5%.

Any rule made by Government opens up a huge opportunity for officials to get more "Personal" revenue.

Now,
1. Who certifies the quality of roads after construction or reconstruction?

2. Who will certify accidents are caused because of bad roads?

3. Who will verify whether the contractor is blacklisted earlier?

4. Who will allot the contract for road contractors after verifying the history of contractors?

These people pockets are beneficiaries of the above rule and starts seeing nonlinear growth.

[JS Kwt]

Originally Posted by gkveda

Any rule made by Government opens up a huge opportunity for officials to get more "Personal" revenue.

These people pockets are beneficiaries of the above rule and starts seeing nonlinear growth.

Corruption is a Worldwide phenomenon, widespread in all developing countries. Developed nations too have it to an extent, even at their highest Gov't levels.

But good Laws should be made, Optimism should remain alive.

In any developing country, it does take longer for things to be implemented on a wider scale , and there will always be those who will use the Law for their personal gains.

But we TBHP, as an enthusiast community, welcome this move. Happy that at least a beginning has been made. Surely will improve the scenario in the coming years.

All said and done...
India, surely is developing at a very fast pace !
So lets hope for the best

[moralfibre]

The only reaction one can have to such a policy is --> ROFL.

Will the agencies pay those reporting these deficiencies in a few lakhs? Or would they only fine upon loss of life? It is very simple to point these out. I can atleast point out a 100+ in a 100km stretch between Pune and Satara let alone any other highway.

All this is a silly PR exercise without substance.

[wheelguy]

Even the consultants engaged in such works will have to cough up penalties and face debarment.

Image Source

NEW DELHI: For the first time, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued a policy of graded penalty, including high fine and ban on contractors to bid for future projects for accidents and deaths caused by structural collapse or defects in design, construction or maintenance of the stretches.

These agencies are now liable to pay a fine of Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore and they will not be allowed to bid for any NH project for three years for such failures claiming any human life. The company concerned has to bear the expenses for carrying out rectification.

Even the consultants engaged in such works will have to cough up penalties and face debarment. In case of major failure causing death/s, the consultancy firms will have to pay Rs 40 lakh as fine and they won’t be allowed to bid for two years. Their key personnel will not be engaged for any NHAI work for three years.

Source

Request moderators to move it to the relevant thread.

[Cessna182]

Recent images of a road that's been under construction for several years in Gujarat. They charge a toll and give you the blessing of driving on a single lane road that has more potholes than Mumbai monsoon roads. This is the real NHAI. All these announcements are just farcical given the state of roads and the blatant corruption evident from the repeated reconstructions of good highways in the name of constructing diversions etc. The road in the picture is so dilapidated that locals have started using the abandoned construction posts as signages.

[Nithesh_M]

Nobody will be punished for sure. Cases will drag on and eventually all parties will settle out of court or drop charges. These builders have big money. They'd easily pin it on some jail bird and continue doing what they do with a new name so they can side step the debarment like so many other firms in the country. One goes down the other pops out with same ownership. I know this from experience.

[2000rpm]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

I can atleast point out a 100+ in a 100km stretch between Pune and Satara let alone any other highway.

All this is a silly PR exercise without substance.

100 in 100 km...huh

Come to Andheri, I will show you 100 in 1 sq km! Some so dangerous that it gives me goose bumps when I imagine the damage possible when I pass some of them.

[Torq]

Are they even going to do that?
When my brother had an accident near a culvert under construction road, the Ditch was almost 15 feet deep with no barricades or any warnings etc. Nothing of that sort. Police, in cahoots with local contractors, didn't agree to file a proper FIR and made my parents and brother wait for hours on end in the middle of the road in sun until they removed the objectionable content from the FIR.
All this while his wife and MIL were in hospital getting tested and checked up!
Miraculously within two hours of this happening, all barricades, signs and boards and banners were put up to mark under construction Road.

My point is, reporting will still be an issue and the biggest hurdle.

Originally Posted by moralfibre

... reporting these deficiencies....

[aargee]

I would say, this looks fantastically awesome...on papers

The MV act, courts & lawyers are indegeniously intelligent in finding 11th dimension that ports across multiverses effortlessly with a tesseract.

In simple Mathematics...

Victim - 1-2 Cr
Lawyer & "other" fee - 4-5 Cr
Money saved - 3-5 Cr

Bag a new project to make up the loss!!

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by JS Kwt

Up to Rs 10 CRORE FINE on firms in case of DEFECTIVE ROADS causing ACCIDENTS !!

When you build a house, you need to get it certified built as per approved plan. This certification is typically done by the corporation.
Does such a system exist for roads? If yes, will the certifying authority (agency as well as the individuals involved) also get penalised?

I agree to the sentiments cited above. However from my perspective, it is a good start. This is India. Nothing improves overnight. Perhaps our children or their children will be blessed with excellent safe roads. Till then we can continue to rough it out in SUVs.

[Adam]

Optimist in me welcomes this move and hopefully this will help in long run.
But it will not improve unless and until law and order system improve and take actions against law breaker irrespective of their Position and social status, for that to happen first our law and order system need to be corruption free. Long way to go.. very long way.!

There is a Railway over bridge near my home. It started construction when I was in School, probably when I was 13 Years old, the construction completed when I was around 22. It took literally a decade to complete a ROB and the traffic scenarios was totally changed in past10 Year and the bridge literally become a bottleneck when inaugurated due to its narrow construction. Now I am in my 30's and probably you guys can guess the situation of traffic over there now. Probably there is no corruption involved in this, but there is negligence, lack of knowledge and most importantly lack of vision.

[landcruiser123]

Somehow feels like this policy is absolute hogwash. I have a few questions:
1. Does NHAI have standards set for roads? I'm sure they do.
1a.If yes, do they actually sign-off on the work done by the contractor before paying the contractor & opening the road to the public?

2. How will an accident not be blamed on driver error in a country like India?

[saikarthik]

One of my friend used to work for an private infrastructure development company and he was in something like accident analysis role. He used to say that when they find any root cause of road condition that leads to a severe accident probability, their managers reaction was first to cover up than correcting/improving the faulty/damaged infrastructure.

I mentioned infrastructure because it doesn't mean just the road surface but also guardrails, markings and warnings signals and signs.

Now this cannot happen as there is already a check (not a penalty in crores though) to prevent and correct such cases, still happens because the all the concerned authorities and engineers will be in a state of tune for personal benefit.

[roadrunner_nv]

The news is welcome but as someone said, there's going to be at least 100 different ways to wiggle out.
We people are spineless and helpless. No forum, body or authority that we can raise any issue with. Take Pune roads for instance..pathetic to the core. The roads near the recently demolished University flyover are in shambles. There's no way anyone can do anything about it till the body feels that there is an issue.

Mu suggestion: have a citizen charter that certifies public work. Any roads, infra or amenities for the public are to be certified by a large chunk of identified and qualified people. This number of people and the exact ones may keep changing. Carry out third party external audits from firms outside India to comment on the safety and standards of roads.
Any discrepancy beyond a certain threshold to be punishable as a criminal offense.