'4.5m-tall Pumpwell flyover violates specifications'

The public’s worst fears, on the engineers not adhering to international or national standards with regard to the height of flyover at Mahaveer Circle (Pumpwell Junction), have come true.

A fact-finding team has discovered that the flyover has been constructed at a height of 4.5 metres.

The fact-finding team of the Forum For Justice (FFJ), led by its working president Dayanath Kotian and N G Mohan, said that, according to national and international standards, the height of a flyover should be 5.5 metres. But, the board installed at the construction site reveals the Pumpwell flyover to be at a height of 4.5 metres.

Construction agreement

The engineer overseeing the construction told the fact-finding team that the height will be 5.25 metres, according to the drawing. According to the construction agreement, however, the height of the flyover will be 5 metres.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) manager, when confronted, informed that the flyover, when completed, will have a height of 5.25 metres.

When the team drew the attention of the manager to the construction agreement, he changed his stand and declared that the NHAI was committed to raise the flyover’s height to 5 metres.

“They are sure to excavate the ground beneath the flyover in order to ensure that the present flyover is raised to 5 metres,” Kotian and Mohan told reporters at the Patrika Bhavan on Thursday.

It is now suspected that the NHAI carried out a similar exercise during the construction of an underpass at Padil. Mohan recollected that since the beginning of work on the flyover eight years ago, vehicles with superstructure had rammed the structure as many as six times. The flyover’s alignment was also deviated to protect a building from being demolished.

‘MP aware’

“Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, who was aware of this, should have revealed the truth long ago,” he said.

The ongoing construction work was also found to be faulty. For instance, he said two pillars – one located on the eastern side and another on the western side – had sunk. “This needs to be corrected immediately,” Kotian and Mohan stressed.

The NHAI officials had taken undue interest in asphalting a road leading to a fuel outlet but had ignored the highway riddled with potholes near Thokkatu, they charged. When NHAI paid no heed to their suggestions, FFJ approached Deputy commissioner Sasikant Senthil, who promised to write to NHAI officials.