Kochi: There is no need for any alarm over the quality of under-construction Vytilla flyover as the report prepared by the quality control wing points to only “allowable variation” and the same meets the standards set by the Indian Roads Congress, according to sources in the PWD department.
A second round of quality study done by the PWD quality control wing reportedly found compromise in the quality of the bridge, especially with regard to concreting. This after the first study by another department team found the quality as ‘satisfying’. On the basis of the conflicting findings, a third round of inspection by an independent party -- Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam-- too failed to find any issue with the construction quality.
“We’ve obtained a copy of the report which itself states the concrete grade, used to assess the strength and composition of the concrete, as ‘M-46.’ The standard concrete grade is M-45. An increase or decrease of ‘three’ is allowable under the norms for concrete bridges approved by the Indian Roads Congress. The other ‘lapses’ found like absence of executive engineer at work site are not serious in nature,” a source in the PWD minister’s office said.
“The laid-down practice when two studies by the department differs is to depend on an independent study. Here the third party study too didn’t report any lapse. However, we’ll consider inspection of the bridge by experts if needed,” the official said.
On the suspension of assistant executive engineer V.K. Shailamol who prepared the report, he said the same was for violating the departmental protocol and “leaking the report selectively” even before submitting the same to the senior official-in-charge. The former is yet to formally submit the report.
“The case with regard to the Palarivattom bridge was totally different. There the concrete grade was found to be M-22 when the standard set was M-35. In the case of Vytilla structure, there is only allowable variation,” he added.
Currently, 70 per cent of the flyover construction is over and the PWD aims to commission the six-lane flyover by December.
