The project office seeks third-party review of highway and railway projects

NEW DELHI: As the pace of construction and laying of new road and rail corridors gathers pace, the PMO has directed the road transport and railway departments to introduce independent third-party audits to ensure quality work. They have also been asked to eliminate delays in project execution.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also asked the Road Transport Ministry to study the construction practices of the Golden Quadrilateral era and noted why there were few quality-related complaints during the execution of the country’s first flagship highway development scheme, TOI has learnt.The PMO also recommended that the ministry study Indonesia’s practice of third-party independent auditing, which would institutionalize mechanisms to improve quality and accountability in large infrastructure projects. Last year, Malaysia also introduced “external auditing” for this purpose.Keeping in view the high investment in these areas, both ministries have been directed to take steps to expedite the movement of trains and vehicles on their corridors. According to the directive, the highways ministry will identify constraints and gaps that result in cargo trucks operating at an average speed of around 50 km/h (instead of the ideal 70 km/h) on high-speed corridors and address these issues. Similarly, the Railways will set phased targets to increase train speed on the corridor from 110 km/h to 130 km/h and further to 160 km/h and 200 km/h.Officials involved in the highway project acknowledged the need to focus on quality issues given that the next phase of highway development will have more highways and economic corridors to speed up freight and passenger transport.