Manual for maintenance of major highways on cards

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will come up with a Standard Maintenance Manual by the December-end that will help in the upkeep of the Golden Quadrilateral and other highway stretches in the country.

The manual, also meant for the East-West and North-South corridors, will lay down the operations and maintenance procedures of four- and six-laned national highway stretches, which have been built through engineering, procurement and construction contracts, an official statement said.

It will also underline specifications, drawings, performance standards for short term operation and maintenance of such highway stretches.

The consultant appointed by NHAI for this purpose Consulting Engineering Services has already submitted the draft manual to the Authority for scrutiny and the final document would be published by the end of next month.

The ambitious 5,846-km Golden Quadrilateral project connecting the four metropolitan cities of the country has almost been completed.

Major parts of the East-West (Silchur to Porbandar) and North-South (Kashmir to Kanyakumari) Corridors Project involving 7,300-kms development have also been executed.