Rourkela: Safety concerns have come to the fore over use of fly ash bricks, instead of baked clay bricks, in the construction of government buildings.
It is alleged that the contractors often use poor quality fly ash bricks and easily get away with it in the absence of any law on the standard of bricks. It is feared that these bricks in a span of a few years would turn into ash and pose a serious threat to the lives of the inhabitants of the buildings.
Recently, Tuku Barik, project administrator of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (PA-ITDA), inspected an under-construction school building for tribal students at Lahanda and expressed concern over the quality of fly ash bricks used in the wall. He even went to the extent of demolishing a portion of the wall himself out of anger and reprimanded the engineer and contractor concerned.
According to reports, open brick manufacturing is a booming business in Sundargarh district due to its attractive profit margin. However, the brick kilns generate excessive carbon gases which increase air pollution levels and contribute to a rise in temperature in the surrounding areas. Besides, as the units are mostly located near the river, people commonly use the fertile soil of the riverbed in brick-making.
Realising the adverse effects of the brick kilns, the then collector of Sundargarh, about two years back, directed the contractors to use fly ash bricks instead of baked clay bricks in all government constructions.
However, the contractors, instead of appreciating the reason behind the order, have started finding ways to make easy money out of it. As there is no law in place to check the standard of the bricks, the contractors now encourage the fly ash brick manufacturers to compromise on their quality to increase profit margins, a report said.
The district administration needs to take immediate measures to ensure quality by the manufacturers or else this would lead to a disaster, locals said.
Collector Vineet Bhardwaj said the government had put restrictions on the use of baked bricks to curb the rising pollution level. But use of substandard ash bricks is not acceptable. The bills of the firms involved in poor construction work would be held up and the manufacturing units concerned would be raided, he added.
PA-ITDA Barik said he stopped the construction of a school seeing the poor quality of bricks. He would ensure the case is not repeated at other sites, Barik added. PNN
