PWD Minister Hears Suggestions from Other States

Bhopal

Fact-finding teams from Madhya Pradesh were dispatched to study best practices in other states and presented their findings to Public Works Minister Rakesh Singh on Monday.

The teams were sent to various states at the behest of the minister, who had urged officials to study and adopt innovations in construction projects in Madhya Pradesh.

While the teams shared the findings of their tour, Singh said that the innovations could prove valuable in the implementation of new projects.

ACS K.C. Gupta and ENC R.K. Mehra, along with members of the teams, were present.

Both teams sent to Telangana and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) made several suggestions based on their findings.

The Telangana team suggested improvements in existing systems by upgrading quality control to the field level, mandatory use of Batch Mix Plants for asphalt work exceeding two crore rupees, sourcing of asphalt from semi-government institutions, Technical Testing (PQ) to be applied to all construction works exceeding one crore rupees, and assigning the responsibility for quality to departmental officials.

The team also suggested the use of Digital Density Machines to ascertain the thickness of roads and the establishment of laboratories at the divisional level to test the quality of construction work.

The team that visited NHAI also made the following suggestions, including the use of a Drone Analytics Monitoring System for survey of routes, the use of waste plastic in bitumen work to reduce project costs, and the policy of kick-off meetings with contractors and field officials before a contract is awarded to identify and iron out site-specific issues.

Following the presentations, Singh issued directives for the construction of roads based on aerial distance and asked the department to initiate action promptly.

He also emphasized the need to immediately extend quality control to the field level and to clearly define responsibilities.

The minister said that sending departmental officials to states where excellent practices are being followed in construction work should be a continuing process so that projects in the state could benefit from the findings.

He also underlined the need for refresher courses and regular training for officials to help keep them abreast of changes in the industry.