Damaged pillar of new bridge on Cauvery shocks HC judge

Turning one of its judges' letter on a barely four-year-old bridge on Cauvery river virtually falling apart into a public interest lawsuit, the Madras High Court today sought the state government's stand on the state of affairs involving the execution of public projects.
The letter was written by Justice N Kirubakaran to the high court chief justice referring to recent media reports of the precarious condition of the bridge across Cauvery with one of its pillars "hanging in the air without any support."
Expressing shock and surprise over the extensive damages suffered by the bridge built by Tamil Nadu Public Works Department in Erode-Namakkal districts, the judge posed a slew of probing questions to the government and requested the chief justice of the high court to take up his letter as a suo moto petition.

The present incident (bridge) "is only the tip of the iceberg as to how the public projects are being executed defectively and negligently," he said referring to some specific instances of cracks and damage to some recently built court buildings, including one in Tiruchirappalli.
Treating Justice Kirubakaran's letter as public interest lawsuit, a division bench of justices M Sathyanarayanan and N Seshasayee today issued notice to the state government returnable by six weeks.
Justice Kirubakaran has also sought to know if criminal action had been taken against the officials, contractors and others concerned for defective and negligent execution of the public projects and sought details of the cases filed in the past 20 years and their present status.

In his letter, he also referred to reports in some English dailies and video footage in social media of the damage suffered by the bride-cum-barrage between Pasur in Erode district and Solasiramani in Namakkal district in western Tamil Nadu.

He said it would only prove the poor quality of construction, lack of supervision by the officials concerned and the non-maintenance of the bridge by the department.
Though such infrastructures were created by making use of the public money, "to our dismay, the poor quality of construction and non-maintenance have led to this kind of pitiable and precarious condition, endangering the lives of people, who are travelling on the bridge," the judge said in his letter.

Referring to the ancient structures such as the Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar temple, built more than 1,000 years ago, and the 125-year old Madras High Court building, he said when they still stood strong, why has the bridge built barely four years ago suffered damages.
In all, the judge posed 20 questions, including the those on exact fund sanctioned and spent on building it and whether the damage now caused to the bridge's pillars was owing to the poor construction.
He sought to know whether such poor quality was due to corrupt practices of officials, contractors and higher ups.
The judge also stressed upon the need to device new monitoring methods to avoid constructions with sub-standard materials and prevent defective execution of works, saying that old methods of supervision have proved to be ineffective.

He suggested monitoring of execution of public projects through CCTV to ensure adherence to quality standards.
Among others, he also mooted appointment of an expert committee headed by an IIT Professor to test the strength of all bridges in the state, especially on river beds and carry out repair works forthwith if required and a centralised website with all data relevant to public projects.