MINUTES OF THE REGIONAL REVIEW MEETING HELD ON 27th – 28th DECEMBER, 2014, AT PUNE

Participating States: Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan

A regional review meeting of PMGSY for West Zone was held on 27th & 28th December, 2014 at Pune under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (RC) & DG, NRRDA. The list of participants is at Annexure-I. State-wise progress and item-wise review through presentation was carried out (Annexure II). Second day, a presentation on Road Side Plantation on PMGSY and other rural roads by converging with Mahatma Gandhi NREGA funds was also conducted by Shri D.P. Gupta, former Director General, Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) (Annexure III). Further, Prof. B.L. Swami, Chief Coordinator, STA Rajasthan, Dr. Shriniwas Arkatkar, Assistant Professor, SVNIT, Surat and Dr. Vishrut Landge, Associate Professor, STA, VNIT, Nagpur made presentations on the issues faced by STAs during scrutiny of DPRs and other R&D related findings in field (Annexure IV),(Annexure IV-A)(Annexure IV-B). Presentation on GIS, System Requirement Specifications (SRS) was presented by C-DAC, Pune. Dr. Sanjay Patil, Head, Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre, Department of Planning, Govt. of Maharashtra made a presentation on works done on GIS for Maharashtra State. M/s Genesys International Corporation Limited, Mumbai also make a presentation on LiDAR Survey for construction of new roads and their feasibility study respectively.

At the outset, Joint Secretary (RC) & DG NRRDA welcomed the officers of participating States. He informed that recently on 25th December, 2014 “Good Governance Day (Sushasan Divas)”was celebrated by showcasing the good governance initiatives of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY),in which Hon’ble Minister of Rural Development, Government of India, Hon’ble Minister of State for Rural Development, Government of India, Secretary, Rural Development, Government of India and other important dignitaries from Ministry of Rural Development, officers from SRRDAs implementing PMGSY, PTAs/ STAs participated. DG, NRRDA also informed that Standard Data Book (First Revision), Grameen Sampark, QuarterlyJournal of NRRDA, New Technology (R&D) Module on OMMAS and Advance Search and Feedback Module for Citizen Complaints on OMMAS were launched on the said day. NRRDA was also presented with ISO certification. Ministry is considering to honour best States, best PIUs and Contractors on this occasion from the next year onwards.

DG, NRRDA stated that the Regional Review Meeting (RRM) would discuss various issues relating to implementation of the PMGSY like pace of implementation, quality, maintenance, execution/ absorption capacity, OMMAS etc. The meeting would also provide platform for sharing the experiences of the best practices adopted by the States as well as problems faced by them during execution of works. He hoped that the meeting would be mutually beneficial for the Ministry as well as States in ensuring smooth implementation of the programme. He emphasized the necessity of maintaining prescribed quality and the need for regular maintenance of the assets already created under PMGSY. He further advised all the States to review the pending PMGSY works on a case to case basis and ensure their physical completion and financial closure in a time-bound manner. He emphasized the need to redouble the efforts to achieve desired physical and financial targets without compromising on the quality of rural roads. He further underlined the importance of maintenance and suggested that States should move towards having a dedicated Maintenance Policy for Rural Roads. This would ensure that the high investment made in creation of road assets is protected over the entire designed life of such roads. He requested States of Gujarat and Maharashtra to prepare Maintenance Policy for Rural Roads and obtain the State Cabinet’s approval. RajasthanState has already prepared Maintenance Policy for Rural Roads.

JS (RC) highlighted that:-

(i)Out of the total eligible habitations (1,78,184) in the entire country, 12.54% of the eligible habitations are in 3 West Zone States.

(ii)The 3 West Zone States have so far achieved 73.89% connectivity of eligible habitations.

(iii)A total length of 3,799.21 km has been cleared for 2 West Zone States (Gujarat and Maharashtra) with a total value of Rs. 1,802.00 crore under PMGSY-II. Rajasthan is yet to transit to PMGSY-II. As on date 7 States have already transitedfrom PMGSY-I to PMGSY-II. PMGSY-II is a cost sharing scheme (75:25 between Centre States for normal areas and 90:10 for special categoryStates (11), DDP areas, Schedule V areas and IAP Districts).

(iv)10.20% of the total programme allocation for PMGSY in 2014-15 is earmarked to be released to would flow to 3 West Zone States.

(v)Out of total releases of Programme Funds of Rs. 9,074 crore made to all States till 15th December, 2014 under PMGSY, Rs. 893 crore have been released to 3 West Zone States (10.29% of total fund release).

(vi)In respect of Pavement Condition Index (PCI) on OMMAS, States have to achieve a level of 90% & above by March, 2015. Except Maharashtra (100%), Gujarat and RajasthanStates are lagging behind and have to take up PCI survey of road network on a priority basis.

JS (RC) further explained that the Ministry has prepared an Action Plan for rural road side Plantationin convergence with MGNREGA. Road side plantation will not only create productive assets but will also check the deterioration of roads and will contribute to strengthening ecological balance and reducing global warming. Ministry has also issued advisory to all Principal Secretary/ Secretary-in charge of PMGSY in all States as well as Union Territories to plants trees on the flanks of PMGSY roads. In addition, Indian Roads Congress (IRC), in collaboration with NRRDA has recently issued “Guidelines for Road-side Plantation on Rural Roads- IRC 103-2014”, which is a priced edition, which can be procured by SRRDAs directly from IRC. He also suggested the species for tree plantation should be selected according to local agro climatic conditions. The technical details like plant spacing, type of plantation, its seasonality etc should be decided in consultation with line departments with domain knowledge like Agriculture and Forest Department. The PIU for PMGSY in the district level will provide the technical inputs and also the list of roads and identify the stretches where the plantation is to be made. He also informed that plant material can be procured by Gram Panchayat from Government Nurseries or Forest department in the first year (2014-15). In the subsequent years (2015-16 onwards) self-help groups may raise nurseries and provide the plants. The payment to the beneficiaries from MGNREGA, shall be based on activities carried out as per schedule and survival of plants on a monthly basis. Details of road side Plantation during 2014-15 submitted by the 3 West Zone States was discussed and States were requested to reconcile the figures submitted to MGNREGA and the figures submitted to NRRDA, along with actual length in km to be taken up for tree plantation to NRRDA / Ministry/ MGNREGA. Principal Secretary, PWD, Rajasthan suggested to extend maintenance period of planted trees from 3 years to 5 years to ensure sustainability of plants. Chief Engineer, Maharashtra and Rajasthan assured that actual figures would be submitted by 1st week of January, 2015. Gujarat would revisit the length of plantation, already communicated by them. DG, NRRDA emphasized that the field staff of PMGSY must be informed about these Guidelines on Tree Plantation.

DG, NRRDA informed that working of all Ministry’s of Government of India is evaluated by the Cabinet Secretariat, on Result Framework Document (RFD). PCI is one of the five important parameters of RFD for 2014-15. PCI would help the States to plan in a scientific manner the upgradation and the maintenance of road works. States may consider shifting from the method of PCI analysis based on the visual inspection or driving speed or riding comfort to the sophisticated mechanized system by using Roughometer or Bump Integrator to achieve accuracy of the PCI data. Required equipments for this purpose can be provided to the States on demand through Technical Assistance (TA) component of the World Bank RRP-II Project. Ministry has already issued advisory dated 20th November, 2014, to all the SRRDAs for initiating a sample verification of PCI data. The expenditurefor this may be met out from TA component of RRP-II of the World Bank. States should float Expression of Interest (EOI) on newspapers as well as website for engagement of Independent Agency for PCI verification. PCI is to be done on entire Rural Road network and by March, 15 states should be in a position to cover 90% PCI.

Director (RC-MR) informed that under World Bank Technical Assistance, there is a provision of procurement of modern survey and investigation equipment as well as design tools and quality assurance equipment etc. In this connection, MoRD has already issued a letter to all the States for assessment of the requirements for survey / laboratory equipments and also IT related equipments. After obtaining the requirements from States, the same was sanctioned and funds were released. All States are requested to procure lab and survey equipments as per World Bank procurement guidelines at the earliest. This needs to be followed by training of earmarked PIU’s officials, dealing with these equipments.

Joint Secretary (RC) emphasised the concern over the non-completion of the projects sanctioned prior to 2010-11, in Gujarat (9 road works), Maharashtra (101 road works) and Rajasthan (176 road works). He asked the States to send the monthly completion plan for such incomplete roads based on realistic assessment of field and other conditions. Once month-wise and phase-wise completion plan are finalized, works must be completed in a time bound manner as per these plans. He also requested all the States to fix the targets of PIUs, contractors for achieving the progress in terms of no. of road works as well as length to be completed in a month and share the steps taken and progress achieved in this regards, to Ministry/ NRRDA also. The PIUs must review progress with contractors on a regular basis and SEs must review progress with PIUs. Non completion of works sanctioned prior to 2010-11 will delay the release of funds from Government of India to the States. All States were requested to take up pending forest clearance issues of State level, at the level of Chief Secretary and Ministry will follow up for a joint meeting with Ministry of Forest & Environment to address the delay at Central Government.

Director (Projects-I) requested all the participating States to review the pending PMGSY works to ensure their physical completion and financial closure. The States agreed to concentrate on the clearance of pending final bills of the contractors and financially closing the works on the OMMAS, which have been physically completed. He also reminded that if the financial closure does not take place in time, the States may not be able to be get funds as per Para 19.2 of the PMGSY Guidelines.

During the review of physical progress, the States reported that some of the road works sanctioned are not progressing as the necessary forest clearances are awaited. JS (RC) advised that details of such pendency in respect of all States be submitted to Ministry, so that the matter can be resolved with Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoE, F&CC). Such pendency of road works is adversely impacting sanctioning of new road works and release of money to the States. Ministry has already issued letter to Chief Secretaries on 30th October, 2014 to also review this matter at their level. It was further decided to issue reminder letters to Chief Secretaries.

Director (Projects-I) reminded all the participating States to ensure timely release of maintenance funds to SRRDA and steps should be taken for its prompt utilization. States should ensure that the roads constructed under the PMGSY are maintained properly. Adequate funds for this purpose must be provided in the budget of the State Govt. Director (RC) informed that International Labour Organization (ILO) has entered into a partnership with NRRDA to support maintenance management of rural roads in various States. The ILO’s Template has already circulated to all the States and requested to make comprehensive Maintenance Policy for their rural roads as per their requirements. Further, a Guidance Note for managing Maintenance of Rural Roads was also issued to all the States.

The issue of updation of eligible number of unconnected habitations in case of Rajasthan was discussed and it was noted that lot of work is yet to be done for updation on OMMAS. Principal Secretary, PWD, Rajasthan asked the State officers to complete this data updation latest by 10th of January, 2015 including year-wise updation of sanctioned proposals and mapping of habitations on them matching with the clearance issued by the Ministry of Rural Development. This is also one of pre-requisite to request for Empowered Committee Meeting scheduled for balance habitations of PMGSY-I

It was informed by Director (Technical) that C-DAC has been requested long back to provide a single point data entry system for all core network roads which can be used for CUPL as well for maintenance purpose. From this data two separate reports on PCI should be displayed on OMMAS, one for the entire rural core network and the other one for roads built under PMGSY. The display in the report should be for various PCI values and year of PCI survey in terms of length in km. C-DAC assured to execute this on a priority basis.

The progress of roads sanctioned under R&D for all three States was discussed and the States were requested to update the details of technologies used as per new formats on OMMAS and also update the details of completion of such roads including the length of section of road built / proposed to be built using different new technologies. All the three States agreed to complete this by 15th January, 2015.

Director (Technical) presented State-wise status of Clearances of the 3 participating states from inception of PMGSY till November, 2014. He advised all the States to correct the online data with respect to year of sanction, Phases, Value in Crores, No. of Roads, No. of Bridges, Length etc on OMMAS, for which States have agreed. He further advised the States to reconcile the year of sanction for all road works, as it appears that year of sanction reported on OMMAS is not in accordance with the year of clearance letter issued by the Ministry.

Director (Projects-II i/c F&A) informed about the status of Training Programmes conducted during the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 (upto Nov. 2014). He advised all the States to nominate the officers for the training programmes conducted through IAHE, CRRI, SIRDs, NIRD (Hyderabad), STAs etc. from time to time. He further suggested that if the nominated officers are not in a position to attend the training programmes, State may nominate alternate officers for the training programmes, so that funds involved in these programmes can be fully utilized.

All States were requested to prepare Annual Training Plan 2015-16, based on training requirements and it would be facilitated under TA component of RRP-II. State of Maharashtra has prepared Annual Training Plan, which was circulated as reference to customise as per State need.

Regarding 1st tier of Quality Control, Rajasthan SQC informed that all works have field laboratories. Gujarat CE informed that apart from static field labs, there are mobile labs which covers 2 to 3 works of the same contractor within the district. He also informed that all districts have laboratories. In respect of updating OMMAS in respect of award of works, Maharashtra SQC informed that they would address delays and be henceforth quick on it. He further told that all ongoing works have field laboratories except those works which have not yet started.

CQC expressed concern that NQM comments about quality arrangements being unsatisfactory are too frequent and are a cause for worry. It was suggested that SQCs should hold regular review meetings with PIUs so that there is appreciable improvement in comments on quality arrangements and the results recorded in the quality assurance registers are reliable.

Regarding 2nd tier of Quality Control, CQC raised concern that works are not inspected even once. Such number of works was discussed with each state. SQC Maharashtra informed that out of the total 873 works 496 works were of bridge works for which they were reverting back by mail after RRM to NRRDA on the status of inspections. SQC Gujarat assured that by next month i.e. January 2015 all the remaining 199 works would be got inspected. Rajasthan SQC informed that 33 SQM’s are available in state. SQC Rajasthan promised to increase the number of inspections per SQM in future. Also, during course of discussions it emerged that one SQM is making 3 inspections in a day which raises concern on quality of inspection. Also, it transpired that inspections on completed roads by SQMs are in respect of maintenance and not about construction quality. SQCs were advised that one inspection after completion of construction has to be in respect of determination of construction quality.

CQC suggested that the inspection reports of SQMs as also the MPR should be closely read and analysed by respective SQC’s to find out intervention areas and accordingly act on the issues rather than merelytransmit the reports. CQC also enquired about the existence of mechanism at SRRDA level for handling the SQM reports for preparation of logical action taken reports. The states promised to revert back with detailed reports.