Highway engineers to face rating cuts for failures

New Delhi: The ministry of road transport and highways has amended the rating criteria for authority engineer (AE) and independent engineer (IE) consultancy firms, making them liable for catastrophic failures in road projects.

Under the revised criteria, 20 marks will be deducted from their rating for each catastrophic failure, according to a recent ministry notification. "The deduction shall be applied to the individual project score of the project on which the catastrophic failure has occurred," it said.

Major structural collapses and severe serviceability losses in national highway projects are classified as catastrophic failures, leading to penalties for responsible concessionaires and enforcement of accountability.


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The individual project score after such a deduction will be taken into account, including a negative value, while computing the overall rating score. The same deduction will apply to all joint venture partners and associates, the ministry said.

The government had earlier this year introduced a deduction of 30 marks for each catastrophic failure while rating concessionaires.

However, there was no corresponding provision in the rating criteria for AE or IE firms. The government is of the view that AE and IE firms, as representatives of the authority on site, are responsible for design review, supervision, quality control and safety and should therefore be subject to penalties.

The provision will take immediate effect, with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the nodal agency, to rate the engineers under the revised criteria.

The ministry has also directed all concerned executing agencies to evaluate AE and IE consultancy firms in accordance with the revised criteria.