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The Delhi Government has referred to the Union Urban Development Ministry for “appropriate action” the report of inquiry into collapse of a foot overbridge outside the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium just days before commencement of Commonwealth Games. The incident caused a major embarrassment to the country.
“We have sent the report of the inquiry committee to Union Urban Development Ministry for appropriate action,” a Delhi Government official said.
Deputation
The official said the report had been referred to Ministry as the engineers who supervised the project had come from Central Public Works Department (CPWD) on deputation to Delhi Government. The CPWD functions under the Union Ministry.
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 by the PWD. The company was blacklisted by the city government after the incident.
The city government has also requested the Ministry to carry out detailed investigation on the technical aspects of the bridge collapse saying it does not have proper expertise to do it.
Asked whether punitive action will follow against those engineers who supervised the project, another official said the “guilty must be punished.”
The two-member probe panel headed by former CPWD director general H S Dogra had blamed the faulty construction methodology adopted by the contractor and held the PWD responsible for supervisory failure.
The panel had also blamed UK-based M/s Macalloy, which supplied parts for the structure, for design constraints in the materials supplied by the firm.
The city government, which was sitting over the Dogra Committee report for almost five months, has sent it to the Urban Development Ministry just two weeks after the PM-appointed Shunglu Committee made public its report on city infrastructure projects.
The Shunglu committee had found irregularities in several CWG projects implemented by the city government and had blamed Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit for the alleged inadequacies.
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