Bhubaneswar: The overbridge at Bomikhal is likely to be completed within October with only a “small part” of the work remaining.
Works department EIC-cum-Secretary Nalinikanta Pradhan, talking to Orissa POST on the eve of completion of a year of a section of the overbridge caving in and killing a businessman, attributed the delay to “incessant rain.”
“Only a very small part of the work is pending which will take us one more month to complete. Incessant rain has been posing difficulties in completing the work. We have decided to complete it by October this year,” he said.
The order for the construction of the bridge was issued 2012 at an estimated cost of around Rs 21 crore with a deadline to complete the work by 2014. However, the project got delayed as the design of the flyover was changed from “L” to “T” shape. The revised estimate was set at `44 crore. Similarly, the deadline for the completion was extended
to 2015.
Panda Infra Projects (India) Private Limited (PIPPL) was awarded work valued at `28 crore while the remaining part — utility shifting, cost of land, electrical cost – was to be borne by the government.
Tragedy, however, struck the project twice claiming two persons.
Satya Prakash Patnaik, a 39-year-old businessman, died while he was coming along with his daughter after the end of her dance classes when a chunk of the overbridge caved in September 10, 2017. Her daughter also sustained severe injuries in the mishap. The mishap shocked the state and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced an ex-gratia of `5 lakh. He also warned ‘exemplary punishment’ will be taken against the persons found guilty.
Even before the incident could fade from public memory another mishap on the overbridge May 4 this year claimed a labourer’s life, just a few metres away from the spot where the businessman had met
his end.
Ajaya Bhumij of Sundargarh district died when the iron railing collapsed on him and another labourer, who sustained minor injuries.
However, despite lapse of a year and the two deaths, neither the contractor has got any exemplary punishment nor the work has been
completed.
One enquiry committee was set up post the mishap that had held the executive engineer Dukhabandhu Behera and deputy executive engineer Bansidhar Praharaj and assistant engineer Kishore Kumar Rout responsible. The committee submitted its report to the Chief Minister September 26, 2017.
Besides, the construction company also did not submit the design of the flyover before undertaking the project.
PIPPL was blacklisted by the government but was reengaged in the construction of the bridge after a judgment of the high court in its favour.
While addressing the media, Nalinikanta Pradhan had said that the enquiry report mentioned about violation of the standard operating procedure.
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