NHAI deploys 10 geotechnical teams to reassess 351 structures on NH-66 projects in Kerala
The ministry acknowledged that multiple incidents involving RS wall failures and embankment settlement have been reported since May 2025.
The ministry acknowledged that multiple incidents involving RS wall failures and embankment settlement have been reported since May 2025.
The ministry acknowledged that multiple incidents involving RS wall failures and embankment settlement have been reported since May 2025.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has deployed around 10 geotechnical investigation agencies to conduct detailed soil and ground assessments of all Reinforced Soil (RS) walls across 17 ongoing NH-66 projects in Kerala, covering a total of 351 structures.
The move follows repeated incidents of embankment settlement and structural failures reported since May 2025, prompting the Ministry to order a comprehensive re-evaluation of RS walls along the highway. In a written reply to Chalakudy MP Benny Behanan in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the assessments are part of corrective measures initiated to address design and construction concerns related to RS walls on NH-66.
The assessment is being supervised by a former IIT-Delhi professor and the Associate Professor and Head of the Civil Engineering Department at IIT Palakkad. Based on the findings, NHAI will reassess each RS wall and carry out corrective measures wherever necessary, the minister said.
The ministry acknowledged that multiple incidents involving RS wall failures and embankment settlement have been reported since May 2025. In response, NHAI constituted an expert committee in the same month to analyse the failures and recommend remedial steps.
It later set up an additional independent expert committee, which inspected vulnerable locations involving RS walls and slope protection works across NH-66 projects in Kerala. The committee submitted its report on August 4, and NHAI said it is implementing the recommendations.
Following a separate incident in November 2025 involving the collapse of girders, NHAI engaged RITES to conduct a technical-cum-safety audit of the 12-km six-lane elevated Aroor–Thuravoor corridor on NH-66. RITES submitted its interim report on January 10, 2026.
Data presented in Parliament showed that 72 national highway projects across the country reported collapses or major construction deficiencies over the past five years. Kerala ranked second after Maharashtra, recording 10 incidents between 2020 and 2025, while Maharashtra reported 19. Contractors in Kerala faced cumulative penalties of ₹32.18 crore for major lapses.
Among the major failures cited was the collapse of four girders on the Thalassery–Mahe bypass in 2020, which resulted in a ₹1 crore penalty and a one-year debarment of the contractor. Between 2022 and 2025, several other failures were reported on NH-66 stretches, including vehicular underpass collapses, soil-nailing failures, retaining wall collapses, and girder failures, leading to penalties, terminations and temporary debarment of contractors and engineers.
Most recently, a portion of a sidewall collapsed at an under-construction NH-66 site in Kollam in early December, leaving craters on the service road and trapping vehicles. Passengers, including those travelling in a school bus, escaped without injury.