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Quality Assurance Handbook for Rural Roads Volume-I - pmgsy

Quality Assurance Handbook for Rural Roads Volume-I - pmgsy

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FOREWORD<br />

Focus on quality has been a singular feature of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) right<br />

from its inception. In fact, the report of the National <strong>Rural</strong> <strong>Roads</strong> Development Committee, which<br />

<strong>for</strong>med the conceptual basis of this programme, specifically highlighted the need <strong>for</strong> inbuilt quality<br />

assurance mechanisms, as a first step towards institutionalizing quality assurance system in the<br />

programme implementation, a quality control handbook <strong>for</strong> rural roads was brought out in 2002 by the<br />

National <strong>Rural</strong> <strong>Roads</strong> Development Agency (NRRDA) covering various tests to be conducted, frequency<br />

of these tests and details of the test procedures. However, at that time separate specifications were not<br />

available <strong>for</strong> the low volume rural roads. In 2004 the Ministry of <strong>Rural</strong> Development brought out<br />

Specifications For <strong>Rural</strong> <strong>Roads</strong>, which was published by the Indian <strong>Roads</strong> Congress (IRC). Following<br />

this technical experts as well as the programme managers felt that there was a consequential need to<br />

revise the <strong>Quality</strong> Control <strong>Handbook</strong>. Accordingly, the work of revising the handbook was entrusted<br />

to the IRC which constituted a group of experts headed by Shri S. C. Sharma, <strong>for</strong>mer Director General<br />

(Road Development) and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The other<br />

members of this expert group were Shri D. P. Gupta, Dr. V. M. Sharma, Dr N. B. Lal, Shri M. V. B. Rao,<br />

Shri G. S. Khinda and Shri S. P. Singh.<br />

This revised version of the quality <strong>Assurance</strong> <strong>Handbook</strong> <strong>for</strong> rural roads does not restrict itself to quality<br />

control only. It has widened the scope by adopting the principles of quality assurance as laid down by<br />

the IRC. <strong>Volume</strong>-I of this handbook deals with the quality management system and quality control<br />

requirements and <strong>Volume</strong>-II covers the equipments and test procedures. <strong>Quality</strong> monitoring of the<br />

projects through independent, third party monitors at the State level as well as at the Central level has<br />

also been dealt with in <strong>Volume</strong>-I. Unlike the earlier practice of seeking quality control only during<br />

construction, this handbook recommends exercising quality control at three stages – at the stage prior to<br />

construction, during the construction phase and quality checks by the field engineers after completion<br />

of each stage of construction, which is termed as “stage passing”. A number of carefully thought out<br />

“Do’s and Don’ts” <strong>for</strong> each activity and item of work have also been prescribed <strong>for</strong> the guidance of<br />

users.<br />

In its present <strong>for</strong>m, this handbook incorporates valuable suggestions and recommendations which were<br />

received during a workshop which was specifically organized to review the draft on April 16-17, 2007<br />

at Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the<br />

IRC, the members of the expert group <strong>for</strong> their painstaking ef<strong>for</strong>ts, to all the members of the peer review<br />

group <strong>for</strong> their meticulous and methodical scrutiny, and to all the participants of the national workshop<br />

which was held in April 2007 <strong>for</strong> their valuable contributions. I do believe that in the implementation of<br />

PMGSY in substantial measure.<br />

V<br />

(J. K. Mohapatra)<br />

Joint Secretary (RC)<br />

Ministry of <strong>Rural</strong> Development &<br />

Director General<br />

National <strong>Rural</strong> <strong>Roads</strong> Development Agency

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