Mumbai: Extremely mindful of public perception in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis directed BMC chief Ajoy Mehta on Friday morning to submit a preliminary report on the bridge collapse by the evening. He was also Mehta to name the officers responsible for the FOB tragedy. Mehta, who refused to come before the media all day, in turn, directed the Chief Engineer (Vigilance) to conduct an enquiry and submit a preliminary report.
Result: By evening, a report was submitted holding five officials responsible for the incident. Of the lot, executive engineer A R Patil and assistant engineer S F Kakulte have been suspended with immediate effect. The other three officers include two retired staffers – former chief engineer of bridges department S O Kori and former deputy chief engineer R B Tare.
The fifth official is an executive engineer. Apart from the action against staffers, a First Information Report would be registered on D. D. Desai, a firm responsible for the structural audit. The firm will be black listed, the donations to this firm would be curtailed and all the work allotted to it would be withdrawn.
The preliminary report has blamed the structural consultants of negligence. It says that major lapses occurred when the structural audit of the bridge was carried out on August 13, 2018. “There is a prima facie reason to believe that the structural audit has been conducted in an irresponsible and negligent manner. This tragedy could have been avoided if the structural audit had been done diligently,” said the probe report.
The structural audit failed to point out an impending failure and despite the public money spent on commissioning the audit, “the true condition of the bridge was not brought out.” The inquiry has further blamed the auditor for not raising an alarm and concluding that the bridge was in a good condition, despite it having been audited twice in the past.
The BMC chief has also asked for a detailed report from the Chief Engineer within a month’s time. In the detailed report, the BMC chief has directed the Chief Engineer (Vigilance) to focus on the causes for the failure of the bridge, the status of maintenance, the history of maintenance and the details of repair works conducted. This will also include the details of structural audit, recommendations of the audit and actions taken on the recommendation.
