A report filed by an expert committee investigating the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s July 12 Zamrudpur bridge collapse, in which six labourers were killed, has raised disturbing questions over the working conditions prevailing at the site at the time of the incident.
The crime branch of the Delhi police received a 65-page report filed by an expert team, headed by Prof N.M. Bhandari, a senior fellow of structural engineering at IIT Rorkee. The report was submitted to the inter-state cell of the crime branch which is investigating charges of criminal negligence against the DMRC and its construction giant, Gammon India, who was operating the site for the DMRC at the time of the incident. The police sources said the report has raised serious questions about the design of the bridge and the material used for its construction. “The report has castigated the DMRC for not stopping the work immediately when a crack was spotted in pillar No. 67 in April 2009,” a source said. This pillar had cracked under intense pressure, leading to the fall of a segment of the bridge on July 12, 2009.