A public interest litigation petition filed before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday sought an assessment of the quality of road strengthening work along the Tiruchi-Ramanathapuram National Highway.
The petitioner, D. Raja of Tiruchi, complained that the road strengthening work was carried out by using substandard materials. In the tender notice issued by the Superintending Engineer, National Highways, Madurai, for road strengthening along the highway, it was stipulated that appropriate equipment such as motor graders, bitumen sprayer, smooth wheeled roller, front end loader, tandem roller, concrete mixtures should be used.
However, the petitioner alleged, the contractor did not deploy enough equipment to carry out the project.
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He also failed to use a batch mix asphalt plant, which guarantees quality of the finished product, the petitioner said.
Already, work on a stretch of five km had been completed, the petitioner said and added that if the sub-standard work continued the purpose of the project would be lost and in a short time the road would be damaged. The public had raised concern over the work and sent representations to the authorities concerned, the petitioneradded.
He sought the appointment of an advocate commissioner to assess the road along with experts for irregularities.
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He said that a detailed inquiry on the project work, including the construction of median, should be done.
A division bench of Justices M. Duraiswamy and Anita Sumanth directed notice to the NHAI and Preethi Construction engaged in the road strengthening work. The case has been adjourned by two weeks for further hearing.