New Delhi. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will hold the authorities responsible for any fatal or serious accidents that occur as a result of a bad road due to defects in engineering works.
NHAI in a circular said that the Authority has taken serious note of the dereliction of duty by the representatives of NHAI involved in the process of issue of provisional certificate, which may endanger the safety of the passengers. “It has come to notice that provisional completion certificates are being issued keeping in the punch list safety works like road marking, road signage, final treatment of crash barriers, thereby compromising not only the safety of the users,” the circular said. Rather, the name of NHAI is also tarnished in case of accident/death. Pending works are placed under a category called the Punch List.
NHAI said, “It should be ensured that all road safety related works are completed before issuing the provisional certificate. The Regional Officer/Project Director/Independent Engineer will be responsible for any fatal road accident due to substandard road engineering works.’ The authority said that only those works which are not related to road safety should be included in the punch list and the works in this list should be completed within 30 days.(Language)