In 2 years, NHAI barred 29 firms from bidding after poor quality work

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi has asked road transport ministry to formulate "clear norms and standards" for subcontractors engaged by main highway builders to ensure high quality of work during project execution. The ministry has also been instructed to rework the criteria of eligibility and selection of supervision engineers, who are responsible for quality compliance during construction.These instructions, among several others, came amid instances of newly-built highways getting damaged due to poor quality work - primarily because of abnormally low prices quoted by bidders to bag projects and laxity in supervision by consultancy firms engaged by the govt. Last Dec, the PM had reviewed the ministry's performance and minutes of the meeting issued last month mentions these directions, TOI has learnt.While the ministry has amended the contract conditions to discourage abnormally low bids, it is finalising stringent norms for rating of supervision engineers. These will be rolled out in a couple of weeks.The rating will make it impossible for those scoring poorly to get work.Meanwhile, cracking down on poor performers, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has barred over a dozen construction companies and 17 consultancy firms from bidding for projects and has also imposed an around Rs 24 crore penalty on them in past two years. In a series of disciplinary action, 26 NHAI officers, including several general managers and deputy general managers, were suspended for negligence and dereliction of duty. Another 57 officers, who were on deputation, were repatriated prematurely to their parent cadre as part of the clean-up drive.In a strong message to highway builders, NHAI has also warned contractors that they will not just face penalty but will also have to bear the cost of new construction for failures.