Due to concerns regarding deficiencies in the quality of work and premature breakdowns on express highway and national road projects, the Ministry of Transport will appoint a third-party inspection agency (TPIA). This organization will inspect and verify approximately 5,000 kilometers of highway and motorway sections throughout the entire construction period until project completion. Initially, the agency will be engaged for a three-year term.
According to TOI, the ministry decided to engage Engineers India Ltd (EIL), which is an engineering consultancy firm under the Ministry of Petroleum. The agency will audit primarily express highways, as well as four-lane and six-lane national roads. Currently, independent quality auditors, who are mostly retired government engineers accredited by NHAI and other road agencies, conduct such checks.
Previously, EIL performed the task of third-party quality control during the construction of the Golden Quadrilateral—the country's first flagship road development program launched by then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In recent years, the increased incidence of defects in national road projects has raised concerns among authorities, as they have drawn public criticism.
Officials noted that this decision was made due to negative feedback from independent quality auditors. According to the approved plan, the agency is tasked with inspecting 770 km of express highways, 2,200 km of six-lane motorways, and 1,000 km each of the national roads with four and two lanes.
Earlier this year, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) instructed the Ministry of Transport to implement independent third-party audits to ensure high quality of work. Recently, at the Pragati monthly meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sarcastically questioned the need for a fourth-party audit, which raised questions about the effectiveness of third-party auditing.
Under the plan, EIL's area of responsibility will be limited to 'inspection and verification' of work quality by confirming compliance with technical specifications and standards against contract conditions. The agency's technical staff will conduct five inspection visits for each section and submit a report with recommendations for action. One official stated: 'The government will cover the costs of this event. The proposal is to institutionalize proactive and extensive quality control of priority projects at various stages of implementation, unlike reactive quality control limited to complaints. It is expected that conducting five inspections throughout the entire project lifecycle while auditing various construction processes will yield better results.'