India fires 11 officials over multiple failures on 19 of its newest highways
India's road transport ministry has dismissed 11 officials and taken disciplinary action against another 11 after 19 national highway projects suffered collapses, cave-ins and structural failures over the past two years.
India's Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari announced disciplinary action against 11 officials on July 29, 2025, following multiple failures on 19 of the country's newest highways. These failures, reported by The Tribune, occurred during 2025 and 2026 and included damage to bridges, flyovers, and road surfaces. The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, a 1,400-km corridor championed by Gadkari, was among the affected projects, with two large potholes opening near Shamli in Uttar Pradesh on July 1.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) blamed water pooling after the first monsoon rains and cited delays in commissioning a permanent drainage system. In Kerala, a 250-meter section of an elevated corridor on National Highway 66 collapsed in Malappuram on May 19, 2025, due to unsuitable foundation soil. NHAI terminated the site engineer and suspended the project director, ordering the concessionaire KNR Constructions to rebuild the structure at its own expense.
Other incidents, such as an 8-foot-wide hole opening in a bridge deck and surface collapses in Rajasthan, also highlighted the construction issues. The 11 dismissed officials were removed based on performance assessments, while others faced action for negligence and dereliction of duty.
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