New Delhi

State-owned NHAI on Wednesday said it is undertaking special quality inspections of 17 under-construction National Highway projects, whose bid value was lower than the estimated project cost by over 15 per cent, with an aim to strengthen quality control during the construction period.

These inspections are in addition to regular quality checks and are aimed at identifying any quality-related issues at an early stage so that corrective action can be taken on time, NHAI said in a statement.

"The first round of inspections is scheduled to be completed by December 2026," the statement said, adding that NHAI will re-inspect the identified projects after 6 months with a different team of experts to ensure quality and adherence to construction standards.

NHAI said the 17 projects have been selected using three criteria -- construction cost of more than Rs 500 crore, tender discount of over 15 per cent and physical progress between 35 per cent and 80 per cent.

These criteria help focus quality checks on projects that are at an important stage of construction and adopt an objective, data-driven approach, it added.

These projects include greenfield and access-controlled corridors, bypasses, as well as four- and six-laning works in the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.