The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : 3 engineers suspended for flyover accident

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 11, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

3 engineers suspended for flyover accident

Special Correspondent

CM grills bureaucrats, institutes probe by experts’ panel

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy ordered the suspension of three engineers of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for negligence and instituted an inquiry by a five-member committee of experts into the Punjagutta flyover mishap.

Identifying causes

The experts’ committee, which will be headed by K. Siva Reddy, Engineer-in-Chief, Roads & Buildings, has been asked to identify the causes for collapse of the scaffolding that supported the pre-fabricated segments of the flyover and submit its report by Saturday.

Other members of the committee will be drawn from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Osmania University, the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and the National Academy of Construction here.

The Government also decided to pay ex-gratia of Rs. five lakh each to families of the two persons killed in the accident and Rs. 20,000 each to the nine injured, all of whom are out of danger.

The tragedy at Punjagutta figured high on the Chief Minister’s agenda on Monday when he reportedly grilled senior bureaucrats at a meeting for failing to maintain proper checks and balances on the quality of work by Gammon India which is constructing the flyover.

No compromise on safety

Asserting that there could be no compromise on safety while implementing major projects, he ordered the suspension of B. N. Rajeswar, executive engineer, S. Venkataramana, deputy executive engineer, and K. Bhima Naik, assistant engineer.

Briefing reporters, Backward Classes Minister M. Mukesh and GHMC Commissioner C. V. S. K. Sarma, said a show-cause notice had been served on GHMC’s superintending engineer R. Sridhar to explain the reasons for the accident.

Besides, Gammon India had been asked to stop all work till the experts’ committee submitted its report on the basis of which the issue of filing civil and criminal cases against the construction firm would be considered.

Answering a question whether digging by the Water Board led to the collapse, Mr. Sarma said the site had been handed over to Gammon India after laying pipelines and it was for the latter to satisfy itself technically whether it was strong enough to withstand the weight of the huge structure. Asked about the safety of the flyover where each span was over 30 metres long, he said this was done based on technical calculations.

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