The Ravi Sinha committee, set up to probe July’s Eastern Freeway accident, stated that the mishap occurred due to a technical fault and gave a clean chit to contractor Simplex Infrastructure.
“It was an unanticipated, mechanical issue. The middle jack of the crane failed as a result of which the entire load of the spans came on the rear jack and lost balance,” said an MMRDA official.
Few suggestions mentioned in the final committee report include complete replacement of the span at the accident spot as
it is fully damaged. Moreover, during the launch of every span, a dedicated safety officer should be present. The committee has come down heavily on the necessity of barricading the road area where work is underway, a measure that was not followed at Wadala.
The officer added that they were waiting for the submission of the final report in order to decide the course of action to be taken against Simplex Infrastructure. The contractor has replied to the showcause notice sent by the MMRDA. There is a ossibility that the MMRDA will initiate action against it once the civil work in over on the Eastern Freeway.
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Terms not met in adarsh papers
Age correspondent
Mumbai, Sept. 27
In his deposition before the Adarsh inquiry commission on Thursday, C.V. Oak, the collector of Mumbai in 2010, said that he had verified the documents — Letter of Intent (LoI) and Letter of Allotment (LoA) — which had been granted to
the Adarsh society by his successor.
According to Mr Oak, the conditions for issuing the LoI and LoA had not been fulfilled.
Inquiry commission’s counsel, advocate Dipan Merchant said, “As far as the record of the collector’s office is concerned, I do not think that the collector’s office had checked the conditions of the LoI.”