Bhubaneswar: The three-member committee, which submitted its report to the Odisha government on Wednesday, has blamed the construction company Panda Infra Pvt Ltd for the mishap in which a portion of the under-construction flyover at Bomikhal in the Odisha capital had caved in on May 3 resulting in the death of a labourer and leaving another seriously injured.
Besides, the reports also said that the construction company had not engaged skilled workers and not taken adequate safety measures.
Talking to media persons on the findings of the report, Works secretary Nalinikanta Pradhan said that the state government would issue show cause notice to the concerned government officials and engineers who were entrusted to oversee the construction work of the flyover.
He said the government has decided to take up the remaining construction work of the flyover at Bomikhal and the other flyover in Lingaraj temple area on its own and will try to complete it within two months.
“The Works department will take up the remaining work of the flyover at Bomikhal at an estimated cost of Rs 1-2 crore while the construction of the roof of the two spans of the flyover near Lingaraj temple would be completed at a cost of Rs 50-60 lakh,” Pradhan added.
Terming the Bomikhal flyover mishap as grossly unfortunate, Works minister Prafulla Mallik said after the mishap, the government had constituted a three-member committee to probe into the matter and submit a report.
He said following the incident, the government has decided to hand over the construction work of the Bomikhal flyover and another flyover near Lingaraj temple to the Works department and asked them to complete these two projects within two months.
He, however, said before the opening of these two flyovers, the government will conduct a third-party probe to find out the construction quality. “If any technical glitch is found, it would be rectified after which these flyovers would be opened for the public,” he pointed out.
Replying to a question on what step the government is going to take on the two under-construction flyovers at Jatni in Khurda district and another in Sambalpur city construction of which is taken by the Panda Infra company, the minister said the government will take a decision after studying the legal aspects.
“The duty of the contractor is construction which is supervised by the engineers. Hence in such cases, action should be taken against the engineers. But the minister and the officials have put the entire blame on the contractors,” he added.
Meanwhile, the commissionerate police on Thursday arrested Prasant Padhi, one of the directors of the Panda Infra company, in connection with the Bomikhal flyover mishap.
The commissionerate police had arrested the owner of the company, Pratap Kishore Panda on May 4, a day after the mishap.
