ITANAGAR, 5 Jun: State PWD Highway Executive Engineer Nani Tath on Saturday clarified that “the ministry of road transport & highways (MoRTH) has no direct role on field in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and is not responsible for the collapse of the National Highway 415 retaining wall at D Sector in Itanagar.”
“It is the responsibility of the contractor and the authority’s engineer for any lapses in execution and quality works at site,” he said.
This clarification came a day after the engineer had held the MORTH responsible for engineering defects leading to collapse of NH-416 retaining wall in Itanagar.
He informed that Package A of NH 415 is being executed in the EPC mode of contract, and that Noida-based M/s TAS Pvt Ltd has been appointed as the authority’s engineer to monitor and supervise execution of works at site, as per the EPC mode guidelines.
“To ensure quality and close monitoring, a technical team is appointed by the MoRTH as per guidelines of EPC contract, called authority’s engineer. The authority’s engineer, headed by the team leader, is supposed to deploy professional staff like highway engineer, bridge engineer, structural engineer, material engineer, survey engineer, etc, for close supervision and to ensure quality works at site as per the IRC manual,” Tath said.
Reiterating that the MoRTH has no direct role on the field, Tath informed that, as per the EPC mode of contract, “the contractor prepares the design and drawings for all structural work, which should be vetted and approved by the authority’s engineer before execution.”
He informed that, since the project is still ongoing, all the damages will have to be rectified by the contractor.
