No safety audit on city structures

The city’s civic bodies have done no audit of underpasses and flyovers certifying their strength and durability, putting citizens at possible risk.

Traffic experts and civil consultants have been pursuing the issue in vain with the state government, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) over the past few years. A detailed audit of all flyovers and underpasses has become imperative in the wake of the bridge collapse at Andheri in Mumbai.

“We have been pursuing this matter with the government and officials for the last three years,” said A T Samuel, director, STUP Consultants.

“We had also organised two workshops for BBMP engineers. The workshop also included members from Institution of Engineers and the Indian Institution of Bridge Engineers. A meeting was also held with then BBMP head T M Vijay Bhaskar. Students from civil and engineering colleges had also come forward to audit all projects, but nothing happened,” he added.

He added that five years ago, they conducted an independent audit of Old Airport Road flyover and submitted a report to the BDA. After that, nothing has been done.

According to the transport department, annual audits should be done by officials and one with experts once in five years.

Auditing of all infrastructure projects is also mandatory according to the Indian Road Congress rules and the Bridge Institute manual.

M N Sreehari, advisor and expert member to the state government for traffic, transport and infrastructure, said no audit has ever been done of any infrastructure projects in the city.

All that the agencies do is tar the roads and claim maintenance has been done.

The audit should comprise load bearing, reflections, vibrations, carrying
capacity and deflections, he said.

BDA engineer member B L Ravindra Babu said that auditing of all works is normally done in March, but this year, it was not done because of elections.

However, the BDA will not audit flyovers, grade separators and underpasses as they have been handed over to the BBMP.

M R Venkatesh, engineer-in-chief, BBMP said that no experts have been consulted for audits and it is done by the in-house team of engineers.