MINUTES OF THE REGIONAL REVIEW MEETING HELD ON 23rd – 24thMARCH, 2015 at GUWAHATI, ASSAM
Participating States: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal
A regional review meeting of PMGSY for the States of North East, and States of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal was held on 23rd – 24thMarch, 2015 at Guwahati, Assam under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (RC) & DG, NRRDA.
On the first day, State-wise progress and item-wise review through presentation (Annexure I) was carried out. On the second day, the specific inputs from STAs, SQMs, SQCs and NQMs were discussed.In addition, Dr. P.K. Jain, Chief Scientist, CRRI, made a detailed presentation on “CRRI-Bitchem Cold Mix Technology” to encourage the States to use this cost effective and “green technology”, in the construction of PMGSY roads.
At the outset, Shri M.C. Boro, Commissioner-cum-Special Secretary, Public Works Department, Government of Assam, welcomed Shri Rajesh Bhushan, Joint Secretary (RC) & DG, NRRDA, other officials from MoRD, NRRDA and State representatives and expressed gratitude on behalf of the State Government for having been given an opportunity to organize the Regional Review Meeting of PMGSY at Guwahati.
Joint Secretary (RC) & DG, NRRDA welcomed the officers of participating States. He emphasized that PMGSY is one of the better structured and managed flagship programmes and its hallmark is quality. Hence, there is a need for maintaining prescribed quality and to ensure regular maintenance of the assets already created under PMGSY. For better quality control mechanism, States should universalise smart mobile based application for inspection, training should be given to existing as well as newly appointed SQMs / NQMs and PIUs engineers on this. States should also focus on liquidating Action Taken Reports (ATRs) pending for more than one yearand online updation of ATRs. He further informed that as on date, there is no pendency of ATRs at the level of NRRDA.
Joint Secretary (RC) & DG, NRRDAunderlined the importance of maintenance and suggested that States should move towards having a dedicated Rural Roads Maintenance Policy and a Maintenance Management System for Rural Roads. This would ensure that the high investments made in creation of road assets are protected over the entire design life of such roads. He further informed that at present six States (Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand) have already prepared such policies. OtherStates may use these policies and customize them to suit State specific needs. Once such policies are in place, SRRDA can use them as an enabling tool to request and obtain money from State Finance Department for maintenance of rural roads.
Joint Secretary (RC) & DG, NRRDA informed all the participating States about “Swatch Bharat Abhiyan” and the role of PMGSY. All States are constructing good quality PMGSY roads with first five years maintenance built in the construction contract itself. Ministry has issued detailed Advisory to all States to keep PMGSY roads, road furniture and bridges/ culverts clean. He requested all the States to organize meetings at the level of SRRDA and / or PIUs with contractors responsible for carrying out the maintenance so that necessary man and material are mobilized in a campaign mode for this purpose. Comprehensive annual action plan for 2015-16 of the State for maintaining these activities should be finalised and shared with the Ministry by 30th April, 2015.
He also underlined the fact that during 2014-15, because of the resource constrained atmosphere, adequate funds could not be released to the States, and this situation may not improve dramatically in the next fiscal (2015-16), hence, States should very judiciously formulate the monthly /quarterly physical and financial plan for 2015-16, focussing on completing the long pending works first. He also stressed upon theneed to be conservative in submitting proposals for fresh sanctions.
JS (RC) & DG advised all the States to use locally available materials, Industrial Wastes, Environment friendly new technologies such as cold mix technology, jute / coir geo textile, waste plastic, fly ash, Bio-Engineering method, slope stabilization etc. on a large scalein the construction of PMGSY roads. States were also informed that detailed Advisory on converting existing already sanctioned DPRs into new technology (R&D) DPRs is available on PMGSY website (
JS (RC) & DG also informed that recently a one day intensive training programme was held for Environmental & Social Management Framework (ESMF) for officers of World Bank RRP-II States at New Delhi. No officercame from JharkhandStatefor this training. It is expected that officers who attended this training should organize these trainings for PIU engineers in the State. The aim is to ensure that all PIU officers are sensitized on ESMF issues. This initiative would be universalized next year across all States. He further informed that NRRDA in collaboration with the Forest Research Institute at Dehradun is organizing these trainings for PIU engineers and States are welcome to approach either SRRDA, Uttarakhand orNRRDA to utilize this facility. Another initiative that will be universalized next year is Citizen Monitoring of PMGSY roads. Three States viz Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Rajasthanare doing this intervention to improve quality of roads by instituting citizens’ checks during implementation of PMGSY scheme by training/ capacity building of citizen volunteers with the required citizen friendly toolkit. The villagers would identifyvolunteers who would be imparted training and given a simple toolkit and based on a check list andtoolkit in collaboration with the PIU engineers, the citizen monitorswouldbe monitoring the construction as well as post construction maintenance of these roads and explaining these findings in the meeting of the Gram Sabha or village council.
JS (RC) & DG also mentioned about roads pending for want of Forest Clearance, indicating that in case of linear projects upto 5 hectare in forest area, the power to provide “No Objection” has recently been delegated by Ministry of Environmental and Forest (MOE&F), GoI to State Governments. Jharkhand and Uttarakhand have already started work on it, other State should follow suit. Further, in January 2011, Ministry of Environment and Forests had issued guidelinesunder Forest (Conservations) Act, 1980 for black topping of forests management roads, covered under PMGSY using Cold Mix subject to fulfilment of some conditions mentioned in the guidelines. In order to quickly obtain clearances, there should be a meeting at the level of Chief Secretary to review such cases on regular basis (in small States, it could be organized on monthly basis and bigger States it could be every 3 to 4 months interval). Director (RC-PMK) circulated a copy of MoE&F’s circular dated 17th January, 2011 to all the States.
Principal Secretary, RDD, Govt. of Sikkim raised the issue of roads washed away or damaged due to natural disaster. JS (RC) & DG informed that in North Eastern States and also in Hill States of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand, occurrences of floods or of cloud burst leading to PMGSY roads under-construction or completedbeing washed away,have been reported. The14thFinance Commission Reportmakes an allocation of Rs.61,219 crore to all the States for the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). SDRF was earlierfundedin the ratio of 75 to 25. The rates have been changed now to 90 to 10. This money should be utilized for reconstruction of such assets which have been washed away or damaged because of natural disaster. The State Governmentscan also define a local disaster and make provisions from SDRF to meet such disasters.
On the issue of reconciliation of eligible unconnected habitations and mapping of habitations on already sanctioned proposals and those covered under State schemes, Director (Technical & Projects-I) informed that this issue has been discussed time and again. Data on OMMAS is not coming exactly matching with what has been provided to NRRDA even after 15 years of implementation of PMGSY.He invited suggestions of the States to get this data on OMMAS becauseIFD places importance onthe data entry of different parameters on OMMAS before release of funds even for Administrative Expenditure Fund. Director (RC-PMK) also requested all the States to first freeze it on the habitation master, as per Cabinet approval of Feb. 2013. Director (Technical & Projects-I) further intimated that a letter dated 5th March 2015 has already been sent to all Principal Secretaries / Secretaries in-charge of PMGSY requesting the State to provide the data on Left out Habitations and the Habitations wrongly reported as connected in the Core Network by 31st March, 2015. He requested all the States to reconcile the data related to eligible unconnected habitations and balance unconnected habitations and upload on OMMAS. Bihar and West Bengal wouldreconcile these figures by 30th April 2015, Jharkhand by 31st May, 2015, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram (only 6 habitations of 250+), Nagaland (Total eligible habitation now 121 in place of 191) and Sikkim by 31st March 2015. Technical Advisor, Arunachal Pradesh has requested for provision of Clusters to be displayed in State Profile on OMMAS, which was agreed upon.
Director (Technical & Projects-I) emphasised his concern over the non-completion of the projects sanctioned prior to 2010-11 in Bihar (1195 road works in Normal PMGSY), Jharkhand (358 road works), West Bengal (177 road works of Normal PMGSY including 5 road works sanctioned during 2005-06 likely to be abandoned and 28 road works of ADB), Arunachal Pradesh (28 road works), Assam (587road works of Normal PMGSY and 65 road works of ADB), Manipur (6 road works – State informed by May end all works will be completed), Mizoram (13 road works), Meghalaya (18 road works – out of these, 3 road works will be completed by end of April 2015, 19 road works in WB RRP-II), Sikkim ( 80 road works – 30 road works will be completed by April 2015 and remaining 50 road works by Dec. 2015) and Tripura (22 road works). He asked the States to send the monthly completion plan for such incomplete roads based on realistic assessment of field and other conditions with current status. Director (RC-YSD) informed that States of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, have not properly updated Progress Module on OMMAS. He requested the States to update the progress module on OMMAS on weekly and monthly basis.Director (RC-PMK) also reminded that if the financial closure does not take place in time, the States may not be able to get funds as per Para 19.2 of the PMGSY Guidelines.
CEO,Bihar RRDAinformed that NEAs are not performing their duties and also not regularly updating OMMAS. JS (RC) informed that as per Tripartite MoU signed between Govt. of Bihar, MoRD and NEAs, NEAs must be reviewed regularly by Secretary, RWD,Biharand forced to perform their duties as per MoU.
Regarding works sanctioned under R&D, Director (Technical & Projects-I), NRRDA informed that in order to keep record of the New Technology projects, a new provision has been made on OMMAS and all the States have been requested to update the details of R&D works under the new format on OMMAS giving complete details of the road, length taken up under R&D, layer wise and also update the details of completion of such roads. Data Entry on OMMAS by the States on R&D Module was also displayed. C-DAC was asked to provide facility on OMMAS for uploading the R&D even for roads under maintenance either 5 years or more than 5 years. Chief Engineer, PWD Assam informed that 2 road works using Jute Geotextile technology sanctioned during 2005-06 have already been completed. He also informed that list of 500 km road length using Cold Mix technology would be uploaded on OMMAS by 15th April, 2015. Chief Engineer, PWD Mizoram agreed to upload the details of roads constructed under R&D on OMMAS by 15th April, 2015. Technical Advisor, Arunachal Pradesh also agreed to upload all the details by 31stMarch 2015. Chief Engineers of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Manipur informed that all road works are in progress stage. Chief Engineer, Tripura informed that 1 road work of 7.80 km using RBI-81 is in progress and 4.46 km of road using Jute-Geo and Cold Mix technology (108.27 km) have already been completed.
State Quality Coordinator (SQC), RWD, Bihar informed that 1 road work using Silicon Aggregate technology has already been completedin Dec. 2010. As part length of road experienced severe distresses, vigilance enquiry is going on. JS (RC) requested the State to furnish a report on the performance of this road including action taken by State for maintaining/ reconstructionto MoRD / NRRDA. SQC, Bihar, further informed that this road would be taken up under maintenance and final payment to contractor would be done immediately on receipt of claims at SRRDA. Director (Technical) informed that in last batch of sanction to RWD Bihar, 426 roads were sanctioned with various New Technologies with condition that their DPRs will be verified at NRRDA. However, inspite of repeated reminders, none of the sample DPRs have been received at NRRDA. He further added that as the design has not been verified at STAs/ NRRDA, MoUs have not been signed with Technology Providers/ STAs, the defect liability period in all such cases will be 5 years and the clause of Technology initiative guidelines will not be applicable.
Chief Engineer, Jharkhand informed that out of 27 roads using RBI Grade 81 and RCCP, 2 road works of RBI Grade 81 (sanctioned March 2013), a MoU has already been signed and works started. 9 road works of RCCP (August 2013) and 16 road works of RBI Grade-I (February 14) are in progress stage. Chief Engineer, WBSRDA informed that total 16 road works were sanctioned in different phases comprising length of 96 km and all are uploaded on OMMAS.
Regarding 1st tier of Quality Control, Director (Projects-III) & Chief Quality Coordinator (CQC)informed that a provision has been made in the OMMAS at the PIU login to upload the geo-stamped photographs of the field lab corresponding to each package, which is also to be validated by the SQC in OMMAS. It emerged that out for the participating States, the States of Assam and West Bengal have uploaded such details for their 20% and 3% of their on-going works (packages) respectively. Other States are yet to start making these entries. He emphasised that now NRRDA would not be considering other statements in this regard. SQC needs to ensure that entries for lab are made by PIU for all ongoing projects. CQC highlighted that NQMs consistently report about field laboratories with necessary equipments not established which is a serious issue and also in contravention with the agreement provisions. CQC expressed concern that NQM comments about quality arrangements being unsatisfactory are too frequent and are a cause for worry. It was suggested that SQCs should hold regular review meetings with PIUs so that there is appreciable improvement in comments on quality arrangements and the results recorded in the quality assurance registers are reliable. Specific attention is required on aspects such as “Quality Arrangements”, “Maintenance of Quality Control Registers” and also “Verification of test results” etc. SQMs should correlate the test results.
Regarding 2nd tier of Quality Control, during course of discussions regarding pendency of SQM inspection on road works not inspected even once, it was pointed out that States of Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh have not been able to show appreciable results. Though in some of these States, good numbers of SQM inspections have been done but those are not targeted towards such works which have not been inspected even once and therefore pendency clearance is very slow. CQC requested all the States to quickly clear all pendency of SQM inspections and for this to happen, the SQM scheduling process in the States should be closely monitored by CEs/ CEOs of SRRDA.
CQC suggested that the inspection reports of SQMs as also the MPR should be closely read and analysed by respective SQC’s to find out intervention areas and accordingly act on the issues rather than acting merely as a transmitter of reports. CQC also suggested that SRRDA should also closely monitor the periodicity of field inspections of the PIU officials on the ongoing projects.
Under 3rd tier of Quality Control, CQC brought out the no. of ATR’s that were pending with the States. He requested all the States to submit plan for pending ATRs 1st April 2013 to 1st April, 2014 to NRRDA, with the aim of reducing ATR pendency to zero.
States were advised to reconcile the road list with the figures given in Indian Statistical Abstract (ISA). Chief Engineer of Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Manipur agreed to submit the reconciled figure by 30th April, 2015. Chief Engineer, Nagaland also agreed to submit the figure by first week of May, 2015 to NRRDA.
Regarding Pavement Condition Survey (PCI), Director (Technical & Projects-I) explained that PCI is one of the five important parameters of Ministry’s Results Framework Document (RFD). PCI would help the States to plan in a scientific manner the upgradation and the maintenance of road works. States have to achieve a level of 90% & above by 31st March, 2015. Except Assam(100%), Nagaland (93%), Sikkim (67%) and Jharkhand (62%) all other States are lagging behind and have to take up PCI survey of road network on a priority basis. Further, States need to carry out “Audit of Pavement Condition Index Data” on random basis through third party. For this, Ministry has already issued advisory to all the States.