Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has informed the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court that it has approached IIT Bombay to conduct an independent technical audit of the quality of the city’s cement concrete roads. It contended that there is no need to appoint a separate private expert committee as sought in a PIL.The submission was made on Thursday before the bench hearing a PIL filed by Rajiv Jagtap, president of Janmanch, seeking an independent assessment of the quality of cement roads constructed across the city.Chief engineer Leena Upadhye filed an affidavit that stated that a govt resolution dated March 28, 2018, mandates that at least 10% of public works be subjected to third-party quality audits by recognised technical institutions.In compliance with the policy, the NMC stated that it wrote to IIT Bombay on July 6, 2026, requesting the institute to undertake a technical evaluation of the city’s cement concrete roads.The civic body argued that assessing the quality of cement roads is a highly specialised exercise involving examination of concrete strength, quality of construction materials, sub-base standards, engineering specifications and laboratory testing.Given the technical nature of the exercise, NMC maintained that recognised institutions such as IIT Bombay possess the required scientific infrastructure, laboratory facilities and expert manpower, making the appointment of a separate committee of private experts unnecessary.The HC directed the petitioner to file a response to the affidavit and adjourned the matter for further hearing on July 20.Box# HC accepts govt architect apologyEarlier, the bench accepted the unconditional apology of the Maharashtra govt’s deputy chief architect, KB Rangari, over two communications that stalled the approval process for construction of bungalows earmarked for HC judges. The court warned that any similar lapse in future would be viewed seriously.A division bench comprising Justices Urmila Joshi-Phalke and Nivedita Mehta accepted the affidavit filed by Rangari, who issued the two communications on June 30 and July 15. Rangari also tendered apology for failing to remain physically present before the court despite an earlier direction.Rangari stated that the parameters cited in her June 30 communication to the executive engineer, Public Works Division-I, Nagpur, were subsequently found to be inapplicable to construction of bungalows earmarked for HC judges.She explained that her communication dated July 15 to the registrar (administration) of the high court was intended only to seek guidance after considering residential projects for judges in Aurangabad and Mumbai.“I had no intention to halt the process of construction of bungalow earmarked for high court judges,” she said in the affidavit, adding that the communications were “unintentional” and were issued only because no specific parameters had been laid down.
