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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS
RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO - 2986
ANSWERED ON – 18/03/2026
PUBLIC GRIEVANCES REGARDING ROAD QUALITY
2986. Shri K.R.N. Rajeshkumar:
Will the Minister of Road Transport and Highways be pleased to state:
(a) whether Government has observed a rise in public grievances regarding the degradation of
road quality and highway surfaces despite the record capital expenditure in the 2026-27 budget;
and
(b) the specific steps being taken to enforce stricter Quality Assurance (QA) norms and
accountability for concessionaires in light of the 'build, neglect and rebuild' concerns raised by
road users?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS
(SHRI NITIN JAIRAM GADKARI)
(a) and (b) The Government has established system of receiving complaints through a Public
Grievance portal about various issues which inter-alia includes issues related to quality of
development/ construction and maintenance of NHs and condition of riding surface. The number
of Public Grievances regarding NHs including issues related to construction and maintenance
quality and condition of riding surface received and disposed through the Public Grievance
portal during the last three years and current year are given follows:
Number of Grievances Disposed
Number of Grievances
Year (Including brought forward from
Received
previous years)
2022–23 7318 7307
2023–24 6489 6726
2024–25 7030 7066
2025–26
11340 9977
(Up to 12.03.2026)The Government takes cognizance of these grievances, apart from regular review and
monitoring of NHs projects towards ensuring that necessary corrective actions are taken up by
the Concessionaires / Contractors for the NHs projects. Actions against defaulting agencies are
taken as per the provisions of the Contract/ Concession agreement in case of any defaults, such
as termination of contract agreement, levying of penalties/ liquidated damages, debarment/
blacklisting, declaring as non-performers etc.
All efforts are made to ensure that the NHs are constructed as per stipulated quality standards
specified in the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) specifications and codes. To ensure that highway
construction adheres to stipulated quality standards, Consultants (Authority’s Engineer/
Independent Engineers- AE/IE) are appointed by the executing agencies for day-to-day
supervision of works at site. Officials of executing agencies undertake inspections from time to
time and ensure adherence of conformity of quality of the work done by the Concessionaire/
Contractors with stipulated requirements.
The Government has additionally taken the following initiatives for improvement of
quality control systems in implementation of NHs works: -
i. Adoption of Automated & Intelligent /Machine-aided Construction (AI-MC) in
NH projects;
ii. Assessment of road conditions through Network Survey Vehicle (NSV) mandated
for all NHs and Expressway works at the time of completion and every six months thereafter,
which is monitored through electronic platform. NSV system for road condition assessment has
been revamped using analytics for enforcement of contractual provisions during Operation and
Maintenance (O&M) through dedicated central cell;
iii. Operationalization of a centralized system called NHAI One App for Monitoring
and rectification of highway defects which enables geo-tagging of defects along with
photographs;
iv. Analysis of High-Resolution Imagery collected from Drone Surveys in Drone
Analytics Monitoring System (DAMS) integrated with Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning
algorithms for periodic evaluation of progress and quality of ongoing NHs works from time to
time;v. Deployment of Mobile Quality Control Vans (MQCVs) equipped with Non-
Destructive Testing Equipment on pilot basis in four States, namely in Gujarat, Rajasthan,
Odisha and Karnataka, for diagnostic assessments of overall health and quality of works from
time to time during project implementation phases;
vi. Deployment of Third Party Quality Auditors for independent quality audits of
NH works on a case-to-case basis.
Deficiencies observed, if any, are brought to the notice of the Concessionaires/
Contractors for taking up necessary corrective/ remedial actions as stipulated in technical
schedules of the Contract/ Concession Agreement or within a reasonable period as decided by
the executing agency / AE/ IE.
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