Swiss expertise to help make hill highways strong, durable
NEW DELHI : The government has invited Swiss consultants to help make India’s mountain roads strong and durable to withstand severe weather conditions like heavy rains. After evaluating the highway construction techniques in Switzerland, the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has sought advice from Swiss companies to design mechanisms to prevent extensive damage to roads, two people familiar with the development said.
The safety and durability of Indian roads have become crucial as the government takes on the challenge of constructing a record 13,800 kilometres (km) of highways across India in 2023-24. Poor construction and the use of outdated techniques create hurdles in the path of this growth, so systems are being strengthened and the quality of construction is being improved.
A team of government officials visited Switzerland recently to understand how the country maintains its highways despite adverse weather conditions and treacherous mountainous terrain. The visit has been very fruitful, and the government has now invited Swiss companies to provide consulting services on highway development in India and maintaining the mountainous terrain in a way that poses limited risk to mobility, one of the two people said.
The recent rains and flooding in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand resulted in extensive damage to the highway network, cutting off connectivity to affected portions of the states from the rest of the country. At various places, large stretches of highways just got washed away, while at several locations, roads caved in on frequent landslides.
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