Vijay Chibber,the secretary for Road Transport and Highways inaugurated the first conclave of Highway Managers Forum in NOIDA today. Delivering the keynote address, Chibber said that this Forum will provide the much needed platform for sharing ideas, experiences, knowledge and developments in the field of transport and highways among various stakeholders. The Forum will facilitate exchange of views and appreciation of each others’ perspective and constraints among all the key players in this sector so that required synergy could be developed towards development of efficient and safe Road network.

Highways Managers’ Forum key objectives are- to facilitate better understanding of issues related to road development and road safety; to provide a platform to sharing of experience, expertise and learning; to strengthen efforts towards development to roads and highways by promoting knowledge management, capacity building and adoption of new and innovative technologies; to discuss policies and programmes of the Central Government/ State Governments/NHAI and to provide a platform for interaction among all stakeholders including civil society media and road users regarding Road safety and Road development.

The daylong conference has four sessions including inaugural session.These are Session I on Role of Highway Managers in Highway development & Management – Issues, constraints & Perspectives, Session II on Human resource development in highway sector & Road Safety – Issues, constraints & Perspectives and Session III on Contract management & incentivizing quality in construction and project preparation – new innovative Technology and best practices, Issues, constraints & Perspectives.

The conference been organized by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India. Principal Secretaries of Road Construction departments of different states, senior officers of MORT&H / NHAI, Senior officers from Academic Administration like UGC, AICTE, Academicians, contracting / consulting agencies and researchers in the country are invited to the Forum meeting.

Several Stakeholders like state administration, contracting/consulting agencies, Government authorities like MORT&H, NHAI, BRO, academic institutions, education administrators like UGC, AICTE etc., Research Institutions like CRRI, HRS etc., are all involved directly or indirectly in the Highway Development. Several actions of these stakeholders are Complementary and supplementary to each other in achieving speedy/effective development in this sector. Therefore, it is very much required that ideas/views are exchanged and each other’s constraints are understood/ appreciated among the stakeholders.