In a written response to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that the government built 2,284 km of national highways across India in April-June, up from 1,823 km in 2020.

In April-June 2019, national highway construction totalled 2,155 km, compared to 2,155 km in April-June 2018.

Gadkari asserted in response to questions from Member of Parliament Sushil Kumar Gupta that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and its agencies appoint consultants for day-to-day supervision to ensure that work is completed according to prescribed specifications and standards.

According to Gadkari, it is the responsibility of such consultants to ensure that the quality of the work is in accordance with the provisions of the concession or contract agreement.

Random quality checks are conducted by the Ministry of National Highways Authority of India or the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation officials to look for flaws in the work.

Road safety experts and the Authority Engineer or Independent Engineer are also hired to audit and inspect roads to ensure their safety and construction quality.

If there are any defaults, he said, action will be taken against the defaulting agencies in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

Despite pandemic-related disruptions and a nationwide lockdown in the first quarter, when construction activity came to a halt, the ministry of road transport and highways exceeded its highway construction target for the current fiscal year.

In FY21, approximately 13,000 km of highways were built, compared to a target of 11,000 km for FY20.

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