Remote tracking to keep Bihar road engineers in line

As the Nitish Kumar government is due to enter the final year of its current term,it has taken the advanced technology route to meet the deadline for road projects....

As the Nitish Kumar government is due to enter the final year of its current term,it has taken the advanced technology route to meet the deadline for road projects the most saleable feature of the NDA government in the state. The Road Construction Department (RCD) has recently introduced Remote Tracking Management System (RTMS) to track down engineers absent from duty. The RCD is the only department using this technology other than the police and intelligence department which use it to track down suspects.

The RCD,under which over 1,600 road or bridge construction projects have been underway,has introduced RTMS to curtail reported absenteeism given the large volume of ongoing projects. Over 100 RCD executive engineers,who have been given high-tech mobile phones,can no longer be absent from duty without any valid reason. They have been told to be available on the mobile phones round the clock.

While executive and superintending engineers have been given mobile phones,all junior engineers have been asked to send daily SMS updates to the headquarters,failing which zero performance would be marked against them. The government has given a junior engineer Rs 100 per month allowance for the SMS updates. Engineers have to give details like how many km of bitumen are spread,road repaired or widened within the last 24 hours.

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RCD secretary Pratyay Amrit said: As road construction is the pet project of the government,we decided to use technology to ensure 100 per cent compliance to duty. Every district sends us updates to compile comprehensive data for ready reference of our officials,RCD minister,and the Chief Minister.

Amrit said the department did a random tracking on engineers on November 9 and found four of them missing from their headquarters. We have served a show-cause notice to them asking why disciplinary action should not be initiated against them, said Amrit.

The superintending engineer of Dehri-on-Sone,the executive engineer of Biharsharif and the executive engineer of Siwan were found to be in Patna while the executive engineer of Bettiah was tracked down to Jehanabad.

Amrit said: As executive and junior engineers are the backbone of our projects,we cannot let anyone play truant. After all,seeking delivery on over 1,600 projects from Patna headquarters cannot be done through calling them. RTMS is surely the technology we needed most. The move,he said,would also do away with corrupt practices as the headquarters would tally the price quotations of similar material given by junior engineers from different locations.

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The tracking system and mandatory SMS updates have enabled RCD headquarters at Vishweswaria Bhavan here to have a daily update on all road projects. A television screen that gives the information at the click of a mouse is on display at the secretarys office.