Everything related to flyover construction faulty: Experts

Faulty design, sub-standard raw materials, and inadequate supervision caused the under-construction Vivekananda Road flyover at a crowded marketplace here to come apart, claiming 26 human lives and injuring over 100 persons, according to a report drawn up by former faculty members of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

The report was submitted to the government on August 10.

The flyover crumbled on March 31, crushing scores of people and vehicles under tons of steel and concrete.

The experts said they stumbled upon multiple flaws in the construction of the structure located at the Posta area in north Kolkata.

"Be it the design, the construction, the raw material and the supervision, there was fault in all aspects," said former professor and civil engineering department head of IIT-KGP.

The tardy pace of work, that saw the construction continue for eight years, was also a factor.

The experts pointed out that the project report drafted in 2008 had said the flyover needed to be completed by 2011, else the increasing traffic volume on the road would make the construction work hazardous.

The causally figure was high due to the heavy traffic moving on the congested stretch.

Apart from Gupta, the panel headed by West Bengal Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee includes structural engineering expert Swapan Majumdar, also a former IIT-Kgp faculty.

The Mamata Banerjee led government had asked the experts to decide on the project's future.

In the aftermath of the incident, that resulted in a nationwide furore, the chief engineer and an executive engineer of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA)- the state government unit in charge of the JNNURM project - have been placed under suspension and also had to spent days in jail in connection with the flyover collapse.

Ten officials of the Hyderabad based IVRCL, the company executing the project, got arrested, and were still behind bars.

Though the police earlier booked the ten accused for murder among other offences, Athe charge was later drooped. Instead, they have been charged under Section 304 of IPC dealing with culpable domicile not amounting to murder.

Originally planned in the beginning of the last decade under the JNNURM, the foundation for the project was laid in 2008 with the work beginning in February, 2009.

--IANS

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