Vigilance goes into Jatni flyover ‘bungling’

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Jatni: In the wake of allegations of sub-standard work brought into focus in the execution of Jatni flyover last year, the Vigilance officials Tuesday begun a probe into the ”irregularities”.
The Vigilance officials summoned complainant Sudarshan Sundarray, president of Jatni Traders’ Association, to their Bhubaneswar office. Sundarray is reported to have handed over the hard disks of footage retrieved from CCTV cameras installed near the construction site.
Meanwhile, residents in the area demanded to disengage Panda Infra Projects from the flyover work, which has also taken up the Bomikhal over-bridge project in Bhubaneswar that collapsed recently killing a labourer.
According to sources, the first mishap at Bomikhal flyover occurred September 10, 2017, after which allegations of sub-standard works in the execution of Jatni over-bridge were made. Complainant Sudarshan Sundarray and others had submitted CCTV footage to the concerned authorities as a proof of the substandard construction work. The complainants had moved several forums and demanded for a vigilance probe.
Subsequently, the vigilance begun a probe into the matter while an expert team from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, had inspected various technical aspects of the project. However, the probe process was abandoned due to various reasons.
After collecting the CCTV footage from Sundarray, the Vigilance sleuths examined the authenticity of the visuals in the presence of engineers. The hard disk will be sent to the state forensic science laboratory, sources at the Vigilance office said. Meanwhile, the Jatni Traders Association welcomed the vigilance initiative. The Association has also alleged that Panda Infra had used substandard equipment in the construction of the flyover. The firm had faulted in the piling of the flyover, they added. The Association demanded that some other engineers engaged in the project should be brought into the purview of investigation.
Sources said the NIT team had initiated their probe October 8 last year. However, the team is yet to submit its final report.