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The National Highways Authority of India has temporarily suspended concessionaire Shivalaya and independent engineer Feedback-Satra JV from future bidding, following the collapse of a 9.4-metre reinforced soil wall at Mylakkadu in Kollam district on 5 December 2025. The wall, part of the Kollam-Kadambattukonam project on NH-66, failed due to inadequate foundation soil strength. NHAI has issued show-cause notices proposing debarment of up to three years for the concessionaire and two years for the independent engineer, alongside monetary penalties, and ordered soil testing at 378 structures across 18 NH-66 projects in Kerala.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has suspended the concessionaire and independent engineer of the Kollam-Kadambattukonam project on NH-66 from bidding for future contracts, after a reinforced soil (RS) wall at Mylakkadu in Kollam district collapsed on 5 December 2025. The action was confirmed by NHAI this week, which said it had also ordered soil testing across hundreds of similar structures on the highway corridor in Kerala.
The wall that failed was 9.4 metres high and formed part of the approach to a vehicular underpass on the project. Preliminary assessments attributed the collapse to a deep-seated shear or bearing capacity failure, indicating that the soil beneath the structure's foundation was not strong enough to support the fill placed above it.
NHAI named the concessionaire as M/s Shivalaya and the independent engineer as M/s Feedback-Satra JV, a joint venture. Both entities, along with Shivalaya's promoters, have been temporarily suspended from participating in future bids. NHAI has issued show-cause notices proposing debarment of up to three years for the concessionaire and up to two years for the independent engineer, along with monetary penalties. The project manager representing the concessionaire and the resident engineer representing the independent engineer have been removed from the project site with immediate effect.
A high-level expert committee, comprising Dr Jimmy Thomas of IIT-Kanpur and Dr T.K. Sudheesh of IIT-Palakkad, inspected the Mylakkadu site on 6 December 2025 to examine the causes of the failure and recommend remedial measures. NHAI noted that recommendations from an earlier expert committee, formed following a separate incident at Kooriyad, were already being implemented.
NHAI said the Mylakkadu failure, taken together with earlier incidents, had raised concerns over the bearing capacity and quality of soil used in the design and construction of RS walls along NH-66, even though it maintained that the underlying RS wall technology itself was not at fault. In response, the authority has appointed 18 geotechnical agencies to carry out soil sampling and testing at 378 structures and RS walls across 18 projects on the highway in Kerala. The locations include structures that have already been built, those under construction, and others yet to commence. The agencies are expected to deploy multiple drilling rigs within seven to ten days of appointment, with testing at 100 locations to be completed within a month and the remainder within three months.
Based on the resulting field and laboratory reports, NHAI said the design and construction of every RS wall covered by the exercise would be reassessed. Where necessary, remedial work would include dismantling and reconstructing walls found to be deficient, and no RS wall would be accepted until this review process was completed and quality confirmed. NHAI added that accountability would be fixed for any lapses identified during the review.
Separately, following an incident in November involving the falling of girders on the Aroor-Thuravoor elevated road project, NHAI had already engaged RITES to conduct a safety audit of that project. The authority said these safety audits would now be extended to cover other projects along NH-66 as a preventive measure.
NHAI said it remained committed to ensuring quality and safety standards across the NH-66 corridor and that the measures announced were aimed at safeguarding its long-term structural integrity.
Source: PIB
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