Make no compromise in road construction, Gadkari tells engineers

INDORE: The development of town, city or a country depends on quality of roads constructed there and therefore the engineers should not make any compromise while designing roads, said Union road transport minister, Nitin Gadkari, while addressing the 76th Annual Session Indian Road Congress (IRC), which began at Brilliant Convention Centre here on Saturday.
Addressing the four-day conference, Gadkari said, “The growth rate of a country depends on the quality of road. Owing to poor road construction more than 5 lakh people die every year in roads accidents. Therefore, I want that engineers present in IRC must take an oath to design roads cautiously so as to curb accidents.” He advised the engineers to use bio-diesel, fly ash, plastics and other waste material in road construction while always think of reducing cost of construction. He also advised them to use the recycled sewage water at the time of road construction so as to save drinking water. “Transparency should be maintained in every department,” said Gadkari. He stressed on the need to have good professional institutes and produce experts in road construction.
Meanwhile, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said a decade back the growth rate of MP was not more than 1 to 2 per cent as there were no roads. However, around 1.5 lakh kilometre roads have been constructed now. “While constructing roads in the state engineers must forcus on three factors. Firstly, environment should be given priority and more plantation should be done on the roadside. Also engineers must use waste material in road construction, which would also be cost effective. They should also pay attention towards maintenance of roads so that accidents can be avoided. Besides, hospital and first aid services should be facilitated to handle accidents cases and save lives,” said Chouhan. He said the Central government has approved building more national highways and flyovers for better connectivity. ”We are now focusing on e-tendering, e-measurement, e-payment in road construction to maintain transparency,” he added.
Lok Sabha speaker, Sumitra Mahajan, advocated the need for construction of roads in villages, betterment in bridge designs and improvement in technicalities during road designing. Earlier president IRC, Mahesh Kumar, addressed the session and discussed various plans and problems. The main objective of the conference is to develop and improve the construction of roads, bridges, road safety facilities and curb the increasing number of road accidents, where civil engineers, experts and students would discuss new technologies.