Delhi govt sends report on foot overbridge fiasco to Centre

"We have sent the report of the inquiry committee to Union Urban Development Ministry for appropriate action," a top Delhi Government official told PTI.

The official said the report has been referred to Urban Development Ministry as the engineers who supervised the project had come from CPWD on deputation to Delhi government. The CPWD functions under the union ministry.

The 95-metre-long under-construction foot overbridge had come crashing down on September 21, injuring 27 people and causing a major embarrassment to the country in the run-up to the mega sporting event. The army had later built a temporary Bailey bridge which was removed after the Games.

The over Rs 5-crore project was contracted to private firm P and R Infraprojects Ltd by PWD. The company was blacklisted by the city government after the incident. The city government has also requested the Urban Development Ministry to carry out detailed investigation on the technical aspects of the bridge collapse saying it does not have proper expertise to do it.

Asked whether punitive action will follow against those engineers who supervised the project, another official said the "guilty must be punished." "We are for stringent action against those found guilty for supervisory failures in executing the project. If there are technical issues, then help of Chief Technical Examination Wing of Central Vigilance Committee can also be taken," the official said.

The two-member probe panel headed by former CPWD director general H S Dogra had blamed the faulty construction methodology adopted by the contractor and held the public works department (PWD) responsible for supervisory failure.

The panel had also blamed UK-based M/s Macalloy, which supplied parts for the structure, for design constraints in the materials supplied by the firm. The city government, which was sitting over the Dogra Committee report for almost five months, has sent it to the Urban Development Ministry just two weeks after the PM-appointed Shunglu Committee made public its report on city infrastructure projects.

The Shunglu committee had found irregularities in several CWG projects implemented by the city government and had blamed Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for the alleged inadequacies.