NHAI to pull up officials in case of accidents due to poor road design

Poor road designing that have led to accidents have finally become a wake-up call for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). India's top road and highway agency has announced that it will take erring officials to task in case accidents happen in future due to poor road engineering works. The decision was taken just about a month after death of Cyrus Mistry, former Chairman of Tata Motors, who was killed near Palghar, Maharashtra when his car rammed into a culvert at high speed.

The NHAI has issued a circular in which the agency has said it has taken a serious view towards the ‘dereliction of duty’ by officials involved in the process of issuance of the provisional certificate. The NHAI will consider such lapses in future as ‘disregard’ of safety of users and policy guidelines and provisions of the contract agreement. "It has come to notice that provisional completion certificates are being issued keeping safety works such as road marking, road signages, end treatment of crash barriers in the punch list, which not only compromise the safety of users but also bring a bad name to NHAI upon the occurrence of accidents/ fatalities," the circular said.

The circular also says that officials must ensure road safety works are completed in all respects before a provisional certificate is issued. "Regional officer/ project director/independent engineer will be held liable for any fatal/serious accidents that occur as a result of poor road engineering works," it said.

India leads global tally of road accidents and deaths with 1.55 lakh people losing their lives last year. Union minister Nitin Gadkari recently said that some of the accidents were due to faulty project reports. However, the debate on road quality gained momentum after probe into Cyrus Mistry's death revealed that poor road design was one of the key reasons why his car had crashed.

Get insights into Upcoming Cars In India, Electric Vehicles, Upcoming Bikes in India and cutting-edge technology transforming the automotive landscape.