Second day of the workshop organized by Quality Assurance Authority (QAA) saw active participation by the departments of public works (building & roads), urban local bodies (ULB), Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) on Wednesday.

The workshop aimed to foster improved systems and collaborative efforts across these departments with a special focus on quality.Additional chief secretary (PWD) Anurag Agarwal was the chief guest on the occasion.

The Haryana govt has set up Quality Assurance Authority in order to ensure quality in public engineering works. Under this mandate, the authority has been entrusted with a multifaceted roles and responsibilities that include establishment and notification of norms and standards for quality and its management in govt engineering works, as well as accreditation of quality testing laboratories and centres. The QAA intends to take on crucial functions of auditing, inspecting, empanelling, accrediting, and defining standard operating procedures to ensure rigorous quality control and management in the construction and engineering sectors.

The authority also proposes to oversee quality assurance mechanisms within govt departments and agencies, conduct audits to monitor compliance and recommend best practices, all aimed at enhancing the state infrastructure and elevating construction standards. QAA chairperson Rajeev Arora talked about the roles and functions of the authority that include monitoring the quality of infrastructure being created by the engineering departments of the state govt. He added that QAA would soon float tender for appointment of DPR and design consultants, third party inspection agencies, which will be empanelled for a period of three years, with periodic reviews.