New Delhi, Mar 27: To maintain the vast National Highway (NH) network, the government has approved short-term maintenance contract (STMC) works in 17,884 km length, costing Rs 2,842 crore, and performance-based maintenance contract (PBMC) works in 6,118 km length, costing Rs 6,757 crore, in the current fiscal (FY25), Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, said on Thursday.

In a written statement in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister said the government has prioritised the maintenance of the existing NH network and has evolved a mechanism to ensure the maintenance and repair of all NH sections through an accountable maintenance agency.

At present, 1,310 NH projects in 31,187 km length costing Rs 8.11 lakh crore are under construction in the country.

While STMC works are generally undertaken for a contract period of 1-2 years, PBMC works are undertaken for a contract period of about 5-7 years.

The government encourages the adoption of innovative technologies or methods to enhance the durability and reduce the maintenance requirements of NHs (depending upon factors like rainfall, terrain type, soil category, etc.).

Road condition assessment is carried out through Network Survey Vehicle (NSV) for the NH stretches before the start of work, before the issue of the completion certificate and thereafter at regular intervals of six months after completion of the work, thereby enabling quality assessment of NHs at regular intervals, the minister said.

Additionally, the government has taken up the installation of the Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) on four-lane and above NHs.

"ATMS has provisions for various electronic enforcement devices which help in the speedy identification of incidents (including traffic violations) on the highway stretches and effectively monitor the highways, thereby improving incident response time and road safety,” said Gadkari.

Road safety engineering measures and works on NHs, including rectification of blackspots.

Out of the total 13,795 black spots identified on the NHs up to 2021-22, short-term rectification measures have been completed on 11,515 black spots, and permanent rectification measures have been completed on 5,036 black spots, the government said.

(IANS)

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