New Delhi: The Delhi government has finally
decided to reconstruct the foot overbridge outside the
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium which had collapsed just days before
the commencement of the Commonwealth Games last October,
causing a major embarrassment to the country.
"We have decided to reconstruct the foot overbridge, and
the work is likely to begin soon," a top government official
said.
He said the government is not going to spend any extra
money and the contractor will have to bear the cost of
rebuilding the bridge.
The 95-metre-long under-construction foot overbridge
had come crashing down on September 21, injuring 27 people and
causing a major embarrassment to the country in the run-up to
the mega sporting event. The army had later built a temporary
Bailey bridge which was removed after the Games.
The over Rs 5 crore project was contracted to private
firm P and R Infraprojects Ltd by PWD. The company was
blacklisted by the city government after the incident.
The official said the government may go for the same
technology which was used to construct the collapsed FOB and
may also allow British company Macalloy, which supplied parts
for the structure, to participate in the construction of the
new bridge.
"UK-based Macalloy has agreed to supervise the project.
The technology used in the FOB has been used worldwide. The
Macalloy is a renowned firm and they have agreed to supervise
the project," said the official.
An inquiry panel, which probed the collapse of the FOB
in November last year, had blamed the faulty construction
methodology adopted by the contractor and held the public
works department (PWD) responsible for supervisory failure.
The panel had blamed the PWD for "supervisory failures"
while it held P and R Infraprojects Ltd for carrying out the
project in a great hurry.
The panel had also blamed Macalloy for design
constraints of the materials supplied by the firm for the FOB.
Asked whether action would be taken against any PWD
officials who failed to supervise the project as pointed out
by the two-member committee headed by former CPWD director
general HS Dogra, the official said the issue was being
examined at the "highest level".
PTI
