Contractors face penalty for repeat road accidents on NHs

New Delhi: To prevent road accidents and fatalities, the highways ministry has decided to penalise contractors if more than one accident happens in a year on a particular stretch of National Highways, built under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, a senior government official said on Sunday.

Road Transport and Highways Secretary V Umashankar said the highways ministry has revised the BOT document, and now contractors will have to undertake crash management and take corrective steps if more than one accident happens in a particular period on a highway stretch built by them under the BOT model.

"If more than one accident happens in a particular stretch, say 500 meters, then the contractor will face a penalty of Rs25 lakh. Penalty will increase to Rs50 lakh if an accident happens next year," he added.

Umashankar said the highways ministry has 3500 accident-prone areas. National Highways projects are executed mainly in three modes: build-operate-transfer, hybrid annuity model (HAM) and engineering procurement and construction (EPC). The concession period for projects, including maintenance, on the BOT model is 15 to 20 years and 15 years for HAM.

The concessionaire is responsible for the maintenance of respective NH stretches within the concession period of the project.