Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) Construction major Gammon India may get blacklisted for a period of two years for the Delhi Metro mishap that killed six people July 12, Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy informed parliament Tuesday after a probe panel found fault with the design and materials used in the construction.
Reddy said the probe panel, headed by IIT-Delhi professor A.K. Nagpal, found “serious deficiency in the design of the cantilever arm and the concrete (used in the construction) not having the adequate strength”.

The minister also informed the Lok Sabha that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has decided to blacklist its design consultants and crack down on some senior officials.

The design consultant, Arch Consultancy Services, has been blacklisted for five years, while the structural consultant, Tandon Consultants, which did not give “correct advice” to DMRC is being debarred for two years, he said.

“Gammon India will be issued a show-cause notice. It will be asked why it should not be blacklisted,” Reddy said in the Lok Sabha.

Gammon India, which is the contractor of the Central Secretariat-Badarpur line where the mishap occurred, is also in charge of building the Yamuna Bank-Noida stretch of the Delhi Metro.

On July 12, an under construction elevated section of Delhi Metro in Zamrudpur in south Delhi collapsed killing six people and injuring 15 others.

“The DMRC has taken 10 steps in the wake of the Metro mishap and to ensure that such incidents don’t re-occur,” the minister said.

Vijay Anand, director of DMRC in whose jurisdiction the accident took place, as well as the previous accident involving a launching girder collapse, has been sent back to the railways.

Two deputy chief engineers directly responsible for the design and site supervision, V.P. Shrivastava and Mukesh Thakur, have been placed under suspension too. Rajan Kataria, the chief engineer design, DMRC, will be issued with a major penalty charge sheet, Reddy added.

According to DMRC, so far 90 people have died in several accidents related to the construction of the mass transport system over the last one decade in the national capital.

The statement from Reddy come close on the heels of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report that hauled up the capital’s mass transit system for poor quality management in construction.

“Audit analysis of quality control indicated scaling down of testing requirements, non-witnessing of tests by the company’s representative, testing of materials (used in construction) in non-accredited laboratories and non-preservation of test reports,” the CAG report has revealed.