PMO seeks third-party audits for road, rail projects

NEW DELHI: Amid the increased pace of construction and the laying of new road and rail corridors, the PMO has directed road transport and railway ministries to introduce independent third-party audits to ensure high-quality work.

They have also been asked to eliminate delays in project execution.

TOI has learnt that PM Narendra Modi has also asked the road transport ministry to study Golden Quadrilateral-era construction practices, taking note of why there were very few quality-related complaints during the execution of country's first flagship highway development programme.

PMO has also suggested that the ministry study the practice of third-party independent audits in Indonesia, which has institutionalised the mechanism to improve quality and accountability in large infrastructure projects. Last year, Malaysia too introduced "external audits" for the purpose.

Both ministries have been directed to take measures for faster movement of trains and vehicles on their corridors, considering the high investment being made in these sectors.

As per the directives, road ministry will identify constraints and gaps that result in average speed of freight trucks on high-speed corridors being around 50 kmph as against the desired speed of 70 kmph and address them. Similarly, railways will set phased targets for increasing train speed on corridors from 110 kmph to 130 kmph and further to 160 kmph and above 200 kmph.

Officials involved in highway projects admitted the need to focus on quality issues considering that the next phase of highway development will have more expressways and economic corridors for faster movement of freight and passengers.

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