‘Buildings look good outside, get dilapidated inside’: Minister Khattar says CPWD projects need quality control

He said when projects were being tendered, some “entrepreneurs and contractors” would come to him and ask him to give the work to “any CPSU [central public sector undertaking]”, saying they would “do the rest”. While he said he was not raising any doubt, it showed the mindset of contractors, referring to their perception of being able to have work awarded to themselves.
“Transparency must be the most-wanted quality,” he said.

He added that quality control, timely execution of projects and cost-effectiveness should be the focus. “Many times it [building] looks good on the outside, but we only come to know after some years that it has become dilapidated from inside,” he said.

Speaking earlier at the event, Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Anurag Jain said the CPWD should study best practices across India and the world.

“If 80-storey buildings can be made in China in 24 days, why can’t we do it? Let us learn from whatever is best in the world,” Jain said.

He also stressed on the importance of planning before construction. Jain, who is also Road Transport and Highways Secretary, said there was a road project that got damaged due to floods last year, and when it was analysed, it turned out that the land for the project was less than what was required as the state government did not want to acquire more land due to potential for agitations.

He said he told officials that in the future, if a state government says it will go ahead with a project with a particular constraint, then it should bow out of the project. “This is the attitude we need to adopt,” Jain said.

In the last financial year, 2023-2024, CPWD carried out works worth `22,500 crore and was aiming for a workload of `25,000 crore this year, said CPWD director-general Rajesh Kumar Kaushal.

Earlier at the event, Khattar and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu gave out awards for the best projects and performance by engineers, architects and other officials of the CPWD. The Indian Air Force headquarters, Vayu Bhawan, won the award for best maintenance.

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