Gadkari to present National Highway Excellence Awards 2019

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Minister Nitin Gadkari will present the ‘National Highways Excellence Awards’ to outstanding performers in NH sector on January 14, 2020, in New Delhi.

The awards were instituted in 2018. The first cycle of awards in 2018 received wide participation from across the country. Following the success of the first cycle, the Ministry decided to make the National Highways Excellence Awards an annual feature. The objective is to recognise companies performing exceptionally well in the construction, operations, maintenance and tolling stages of highway development as well as in the arena of road safety.

The motive behind starting an annual awards is to create a spirit of healthy competitiveness amongst all stakeholders involved in the development of highway infrastructure in the country and to contribute to the larger goal of expanding the road network in the country. By announcing awards each year, the Ministry would acknowledge exceptional work being done in various aspects of highway management and recognise agencies going beyond the scope of their work to deliver the finest quality of services, according to a PIB release.

The nominations were opened on August 19, 2019. An impartial and independent evaluation process was adopted which had objective and quantifiable assessment parameters.

Each award category had its own pre-defined eligibility criteria, assessment parameters and scoring rubrics. Altogether 104 applications were received across  seven categories on an online application platform designed by NIC. The assessment was carried out in three months. Each application underwent multiple rounds of scrutiny. First the data and documents submitted by the applicants were evaluated, and then shortlisted projects were visited on-site by a team of trained experts to corroborate the submitted data from findings on the field.

Detailed project profiles of the top 40 shortlisted projects were presented before a panel, who checked all the aspects of each projects and finalized 12 winners across the seven categories.

Toll authorities, which have managed the best implementation of FASTag technology, will also be awarded for increased automation in toll collection.