MADURAI
A public interest litigation petition was filed before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday seeking a direction to assess a 10-km stretch on Tiruchi- Ramanathapuram National Highway to ascertain if the recently concluded road repair work was in accordance with Indian Road Congress (IRC) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) guidelines.
The petitioner, A. Palanivel of Tiruchi, claimed that the maintenance work along the 10-km stretch between Tiruchi and Rameswaram was carried out during June-July, in which substandard methods were followed. He claimed that people in the area were taken aback by the glaring irregularities and had protested against them.
He claimed that the contractor, who was engaged for maintenance work, did not use modern equipment as mandated under the contract with the NHAI. Even the prescribed standards to ensure proper mixing methods were not followed, he said.
Equipment such as motor graders, bitumen sprayer, smooth wheeled roller, front end loader, tandem roller and concrete mixtures, which should had been deployed to carry out the repair work, were not used, he claimed.
The State had already established an independent quality control department similar to that of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption wing to ensure quality check of roads. It must be ensured that the body worked independently to ensure that quality checks on road works were carried out appropriately. He sought an assessment test of the road, which was repaired at a cost of ₹12.79 crore.
A Division Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and N. Sathish Kumar directed notice to the NHAI and the contractor and adjourned the case by four weeks.
