NHAI babus and thekedars pledge not to be corrupt

NeW DELHI: For the first time in NHAI's history, all stakeholders tasked with building and maintaining national highways, including officials, staff, road developers and consultants on Friday publicly pledged not to give or take any "inducement or obligation" from each other.

Top NHAI officials and senior executives of infrastructure majors, including GMR, IRB, GVK, Sapoorji Pallonji and Oriental Structural Engineers took this pledge on the occasion of NHAI's 21st foundation day. In the pledge, administered by NHAI chairman Raghav Chandra, all the stakeholders read out that they will maintain "integrity, ethics and honesty" in their dealings, do everything to uphold the "name, prestige and image" of NHAI and complete projects in time.

This change in approach gains importance considering the large public perception of corruption in implementation of highway projects in the country.

NHAI, for the first time, also gave awards for best highway project, wayside amenities, toll plaza, greenest stretch and project completed before time in the last year.

NHAI chairman asked consultants preparing detailed project reports to work on the ground for proper detailing rather than relying on Google Maps. Chandra asked private concessionaires to focus on managing their projects well.

National Highways Authority of India