Government highway engineers will now be held responsible for failure to make the National Highway network pothole-free with the Centre setting the timeline to get NHs rid of potholes by the year-end. Each project director must visit all roads at least once in every 15 days and take steps to fix any maintenance issue.
For this, the entire 1.46 lakh km of NH network will be covered under some kind of a perpetual maintenance contract, meaning that maintenance can be undertaken whenever there is a requirement rather than going for floating fresh tenders. In 2021, potholes caused 3,625 road accidents claiming 1,481 lives and leaving 3,064 injured. Potholes on highways also impact the speed of vehicles.
The idea of pothole-free national highways by the year end, might sound like an improbability to many Indians, but the Union road transport and highways ministry has set a December target for its officials to ensure that national highways (NHs) are rid of all such craters.Further, officials who fail to meet the target for their assigned stretches, will have to shell out hefty fines.