Quality Assurance Handbook for Rural Roads Volume-I - pmgsy
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