No negligence on our part; don't know how the accident happened: IVRCL

The company's officials say only a thorough investigation into the accident will bring out the cause

Representatives of IVRCL, the contractor for the Vivekananda Flyover project, a part of which collapsed and killed at least 25 people in Kolkata yesterday, said only a thorough investigation into the accident will bring out the causes of the accident as they had followed all the standard protocols besides using quality material in the construction.

“A local newspaper even ran a story linking the accident to a possible bomb-blast while citing an eye witness account who apparently saw some glass pieces in the accident spot. We absolutely do not know how the accident has happened as there was no negligence or compromise on part of the company either in quality of materials or the construction protocols,” P Sita, head of legal department of IVRCL told the media at the company’s headquarters here on Friday.

Responding to a volley of questions that mostly targeted the yesterday's comment that the accident was an act of God, K Pandu Ranga Rao, head of HR and Admin said he used the expression only to explain that the causes of the accident were beyond the control of anybody including the company.

On the question of sub-contractors handling the work at the site, Rao said it was a usual practice where construction companies deploy huge number of subcontractors to accomplish the work and these subcontractors will undertake a particular work only after the clearance were issued by the company based on quality and other parameters.

There was a huge media presence in front of the company headquarters since Friday morning as there were reports that a four-member police team from Kolkata has already arrived at Hyderabad and also questioning the company officials. However, Rao denied the reports stating that so far no police official has approached him or visited the office in connection with the accident.

Even as the Kolkata police initiated steps to investigate the possible cause of this deadly accident besides filing the three FIRs with sections including IPC 304 A, which deals with acts of causing death by negligence, the top officials of the company including the chairman and the joint managing director remained unavailable while letting the second rung officials to interact with the media on this issue.

The company’s HR head Rao said at least 7 of their people were injured in the accident and were all admitted into local hospitals. According to him, the company has rushed its technical and legal teams to Kolkata on Friday morning to deal with the situation.

"We are in shock and it takes time to put everything in place. There were no issues with the quality as the same material was used to build 59 decks which remain perfect," the company legal head stated.