48 National Highway failures since 2021 raise construction quality concerns

India has very big roads called national highways that are built by companies and checked by the government.

Since 2021, the government has counted 48 problems where these roads cracked, broke, or were not built well.

The state of Kerala had the most recent problems, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Companies that did a bad job have to pay money as a punishment — one company had to pay 119 crore rupees.

Even a brand-new expressway near Lucknow and Kanpur had its top layer slip off soon after it opened.

Heavy monsoon rains, floods and landslides also damaged about 2,200 kilometres of highway this year.

The government says these problems happened because of poor workmanship, bad design and not enough supervision.

To make things better, the government is using drones, cameras and special testing vans to check road quality.

It is also spending thousands of crores of rupees to maintain and repair the highways.

The government wants all national highways to be built according to good quality standards so people can drive safely.