The three member committee constituted by the Uttarakhand Government for inquiry into the collapse of Chauras bridge on Alaknanda river on March 25, 2012 at Srinagar-Garhwal in Pauri district in which five workers and one died and 18 were injured has already submitted its report to the Government. The Chief Engineer of Public Works Department, Pauri, said that the chargesheet of the
employees found responsible for the collapse of Chauras bridge as stated in the inquiry report has been sent to government and action against those found guilty will be initiated by the State Government. The inquiry report had recommended action against nine engineers, black listing of two companies and internal action against those in IIT Roorkee responsible for the bridge design and proof checking.
On the other hand, on June 16, the Uttarakhand High Court directed the respondents — State Government and PWD construction division Srinagar — to inform the HC about action taken against those responsible for the bridge collapse in a PIl filed by general secretary of Society for Revolution Against Corruption, Santosh Mamgain. Mamgain said that there is lacuna in the committee's inquiry report submitted to the State government as no financial liability had been fixed for the Chauras bridge collapse which had resulted in the loss of about `18 crore.
The State Government had ordered the primary inquiry deputing Uttarakhand principal Secretary S Raju in March 2012 to conduct the inquiry along with technical expert Dr Pramod Kumar Singh, Professor and head of department, Civil Engineering ITBHU, Banaras. This inquiry report which was submitted to the government in April 2013 didn't hold any departmental officer, firm or contractor responsible for the collapse.
After one year of the collapse, Mamgain filed a PIl in the HC in March 2013 against respondents State Government and Construction division of PWD Srinagar. Meanwhile, the State Government also formed a three member committee comprising senior departmental officers.
In its report submitted to the Government in May this year, the committee recommended departmental and legal action against engineers responsible for the collapse. The report stated that the bridge collapsed due to absence of holding down arrangement at abutment ends of the bridge; casting of deck slab from middle span instead of casting the end span first; selection of components of building section not in line with good engineering practices; change of bearing system by department officers from the one which was designed and proposed by the designer-Dr Vipul Prakash of IIT Roorkee to POT-PTEE bearing system without obtaining the design of hold down arrangements from the supplier of bearings.
The committee recommended that departmental and legal action be taken against nine engineers including the then PWD Pauri chief engineer RC Mittal, superintendent engineer PN Tikku, the then executive engineer of PWD Srinagar construction division SS Yadav, the then executive engineers KS Negi and Deepak Gupta the then assistant engineer JS Kandari, the then junior engineers Kapil Kumar and H Mishra along with superintendent engineer KK Srivastava. The committee had also recommended that two firms - Madhava Hitech Engineering Pvt ltd, Hyderabad and J Sons Pvt ltd Meerut be blacklisted. The committee had also suggested that the IIT Roorkee director should be requested to initiate internal action against Vipul Prakash, Dr VK Gupta and Bhupendra Singh of IIT Roorkee who were responsible for the bridge design and proof checking. Mamgain averred that the firm Hillways Pvt ltd, working on the construction of Chauras bridge since 2008 has not mentioned in the committee report.