Delhi Metro seeks ban on Gammon

Delhi Metro, the country’s most ambitious infrastructure project, has served Mumbai-based construction giant Gammon India a show-cause notice, asking why it should not be banned for two years and debarred from bidding for contracts under phase IV of the project.

Today’s move, announced at a press conference in the capital, comes a little over a month after an accident killed six workers at a metro construction site on July 12. The accident, the latest in a series over the past year, raised public outrage and prompted Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s widely respected chief E Sreedharan to submit his resignation, which the state government declined to accept in the interests of completing the project in time for the Commonwealth Games next year.

DMRC has also blacklisted Arch Consultants, design consultants to the project, for five years, and structural consultants Tondon Consultants for two years . Both have also been barred from all existing contracts in which they were involved.

The corporation has also suspended its own deputy chief engineers V P Srivastava and Mukesh Thakur. Chief engineer Rajiv Kataria (who was part of a committee investigating the accident earlier) will be issued a penalty chargesheet.

Today’s decisions were taken after a high-powered committee set up to examine the cause of the accident came out with its report on July 23 criticising DMRC for lax safety standards.

Addressing reporters today, Sreedharan said, “The reason for the accident was design deficiency and material deficiency. It is not possible for us to take back ongoing projects from Gammon because that would delay Phase 3 metro by six to eight months. There are very few contractors who can qualify for Delhi metro projects.”

Gammon is working on five major projects of the metro worth Rs 300 crore, of which about 70 per cent of the work has been completed. The penalty, which could run to a couple of crores, will be decided by the corporation after it receives a reply to its show cause notice.

DMRC’s move could have an adverse impact on the construction giant which has been in the eye of the storm on several other projects. The company was blamed by a committee for the collapse of the flyover in Hyderabad in 2007 and directed to pay penalty.

A Gammon India official declined to comment saying: “We have nothing to add. We do not have the report of the committee neither do we have show cause notice with us. We can comment only as and when it comes,’’ he said

Gammon India stock which opened lower than Monday’s close of Rs 142.25, touched an intra-day low of Rs 118 in the afternoon trade before touching an intra-day high of Rs 151.50 and closing the day at Rs 148.60, nearly 4.46 per cent higher than Monday’s close.

To ensure that more accidents do not occur, DMRC has decided to introduce a two- layered checking system for design and safety features of the metro — one by independent agencies to be hired by DMRC and the other by the corporation.

 

Sreedharan: We are also responsible
Excerpts from the press meet

Is it correct on Delhi Metro’s part to blame everything on the contractors and absolve itself of responsibility?
We are also responsible for the accident at the project site and that is why we have suspended our officials. Our chief engineer (design), who was also on the committee, was removed from that committee by me.

Gammon India has been blacklisted for two years. Will there be any project up for bid in these two years?
Yes, the work on the Phase IV of the Delhi Metro is to start by mid-2010 and Gammon will not be able to bid for those projects.

It seems most of your projects have been completed before schedule. Does this mean there is extra pressure on contractors to finish projects that might lead to safety issues being compromised?
We have finished work before the deadline on almost all the projects. There is no such pressure on contractors. We have stipulated four and a half years for projects where it should take two and a half years.