HOT TOPICS

SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES

Gammon and the Metro - is there a safety concern?

154

sanjayv - 30 December, 2009 | Bangalore | Namma Metro | Safety | Analysis | Quality | Transportation | public transport | BMRCL | Metro Rail

 After the recent bridge collapse in Rajasthan on the E-W corridor involving Gammon, am beginning to wonder about who would conduct a proper audit of the company's practices?  Since Bangalore Metro has offloaded a portion of the work to Gammon, this is particularly worrying for us. There are three major accidents that have been reported in the national press.

  1. Hyderabad.  Where sections of the under construction Panjagutta flyover collapsed. See link here.
  2. The Delhi Metro Accident
  3. The recent bridge collapse in Kota, Rajasthan

While there have been enquiries on these accidents, somehow, the recurrence of these accidents in projects involving this particular company is worrying.  One hopes that there is a clear and transparent enquiry.  According to this article, it appears that the NHAI has already given a "clean chit" to the companies involved and cited human error, even though a formal enquiry is still pending! 

"We have not found Gammon India and Hyundai guilty in the Chambal bridge collapse," NHAI Chairman Brijeshawar Singh told reporters at the rescue operations site on Monday. 

Singh said that there had been "some technical reasons" behind the collapse which would come out only after the debris are removed and investigation completed.

What utter nonsense!  I would have expected the TOI article to also cross verify with couple of other technical experts  The Bangalore Metro has to take a keen interest in all these enquiries and publish information on why they are happy in continuing with Gammon.

As an aside, Mr. Singh of NHAI is, of course an IAS officer who was Chairman and MD of "Arasu Cable TV corporation", apparently a govt of TN cable TV company.  Can you see a company like GMR infra hiring a cable TV executive as its CEO? It is going to be important to introduce broad "streams of expertise" in the IAS, like SB had suggested earlier (I can't find the link to cross ref). 

As an example, look at our own BMRCL Sivasailam's background here.  Majority of the expertise is not particularly relevant to this type of a project.  Mr. Sreedharan of the Delhi Metro has a much more focussed background in comparison.

COMMENTS

We need to worry

vinod_shankar - 30 December, 2009 - 17:37

Agreed that the recent track record of gammon india is worrying considering that a big part of reach-I is being executed by them.   Similarly the kolkata metro viaduct has been awareded to gammon and the kolkata metro chief has immediately swung into action to ensure safety at places where gammon in working. For details click here.  Ensuring the same by BMRCL for namma metro will go long way in assuaging the fears about gammon. 

Regards,

vinod

 

Reach 1 at stake..

srinidhi - 31 December, 2009 - 17:35

Gammon is doing where Navyuga  left off..!

http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/29/stories/2009072959880400.htm

no wonder the pace is very slow..and some small accidents already reported!

Btw Gammon was the ones who did the hebbal flyover..nothin much to complain there though!

Safety avoids construction collapse!??

Nitinjhanwar - 4 January, 2010 - 14:09

 Safety  versus deficiencies in design and contruction methodology

are completely two different things. Ironically majority of the

persons who died on the Kota Bridge could not get out of the 

danger zone in time because they had themselves strapped to 

the structure.

Some Possible reasons:

1.0 Inadequate foundation.

2.0 Design deficiency.

3.0 Construction checklist not followed.

4.0 Inadequate shuttering support.

5.0 Too much live load on green concrete.

The subject of safety aspects of design and construction relates to

the specification of the item and is secondary to actual design 

and construction.

Nitin Jhanwar

 

PRAJA.IN COMMENT GUIDELINES

Posting Guidelines apply for comments as well. No foul language, hate mongering or personal attacks. If criticizing third person or an authority, you must be fact based, as constructive as possible, and use gentle words. Avoid going off-topic no matter how nice your comment is. Moderators reserve the right to either edit or simply delete comments that don't meet these guidelines. If you are nice enough to realize you violated the guidelines, please save Moderators some time by editing and fixing yourself. Thanks!