A total of 55 incidents involving collapses or structural damage were reported on roads, bridges, and tunnels executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the last five years, according to union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari.
The information was shared in the Rajya Sabha during a response to a question from Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, who sought clarity on the accountability framework for such occurrences. Of the 55 cases, 40 took place during the construction phase while the rest were observed in completed projects.
Gadkari noted that in nearly all the reported instances, private contractors faced action. However, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against government officials in only two cases. In one, the project director of the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) in Palanpur was suspended due to substandard work on the six-lane SanchoreāSantalpur segment of the AmritsarāJamnagar Economic Corridor (NHā754K). In another, the project director of PIU Nagpur was transferred for flawed construction of a flyover on NH-6.
The data excludes incidents on projects executed by other agencies under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), such as the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), as well as those undertaken by state public works departments or other central bodies. Notably, the Silkyara tunnel collapse in Uttarakhand in November 2023, in which 41 workers died, is not part of the statistics provided. That project falls under NHIDCL, a separate implementation body.
The Silkyara-Barkot tunnel is a component of the governmentās Char Dham road connectivity initiative, which aims to provide year-round access to the four pilgrimage sites in Uttarakhand. The November 2023 incident had triggered widespread scrutiny of construction quality and oversight mechanisms in hilly terrain.
In his statement, Gadkari reiterated that action had been taken against defaulting contractors in āalmost all casesā and added that quality control mechanisms were being continuously reviewed. However, concerns remain over the limited number of disciplinary actions taken against public officials supervising these projects.
The issue of quality lapses in highway construction has been raised repeatedly in Parliament and audit reports in recent years. With the government aiming to expand the national highway network to 200,000 km by 2047, incidents of poor workmanship, design issues, and execution delays have come under increased scrutiny.
The Ministry has also set a target to halve road accident fatalities by 2030. In this context, the structural integrity of roads and related infrastructure has become a central focus of safety and policy discussions.
While the NHAI has implemented third-party audits and introduced digital monitoring tools across many projects, the frequency of structural failures has highlighted the need for stronger enforcement, including accountability at both the contractor and supervisory levels.
