NEARLY a month after a wall of Gill flyover in Ludhiana collapsed, but a major tragedy averted, an enquiry report submitted by a four-member committee formed by the deputy commissioner has held “rats” as the main culprits.

The inquiry report dated June 14, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, has concluded, “the cause of failure of Reinforced Earth Retaining Wall is weakening of the geogrid net by rats”.

Holding no official from Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC) or the contractor responsible for the wall collapse, the report concludes, “During the inspection, it was observed that the reinforcing geogrid was rat-eaten at many places and there were big holes in its net. As the reinforced earth wall panels are held in position by the geogrid net only, so after the net was cut, it lost the strength required for holding them. This led to the failure of the wall.” The report added, “Many rat burrows were observed in the earth under bridge portion and all around the wall.”

On the night of May 13, a retaining wall of the Gill flyover, one of the busiest in the city, collapsed. However, a major tragedy was averted as traffic was stopped in time. The four-member committee of Shena Aggarwal, additional deputy commissioner; Rahul Gagneja, executive engineer, Ludhiana MC; Rakesh Kumar, executive engineer, Public Works Department, and Ranbir Singh, executive engineer, Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority, has also given four “suggestions” to ensure “safety of other bridges” in future. These are, “Garbage dumps under the bridges should be immediately shifted, rat burrows should be located and pressure grouted, RE wall panels, which are bulging out or have reverse slope, should be strengthened and a gap should be maintained between the reinforced earth walls and approach slab.”

Immediately after the wall had collapsed, Ludhiana Municipal Corporation had been quick to blame the “rats” from its own garbage dump under the bridge. Dharam Singh, superintending engineer, bridges and roads department, Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, had said, “There is an extreme rodent problem in the area due to MC’s own garbage dump under the bridge. It is probably due to huge number of rats who kept on digging underneath that there was soil erosion and a wall collapsed. We will shift the dump.”

However, the external experts who inspected the site, trashing the MC’s theory, said the wall did not collapsed due to rats but “poor quality of construction”. “The other side of the retaining wall is also on the verge of a collapse and has bulged out. The walls are out of plumb beyond permissible limits as the precast RCC blocks are not properly locked with each other. Water seepage from top is also an issue. It is a big question that how the department gave clearance to such poor quality of construction,” said Kapil Arora, president, Council of Engineers.

The flyover is currently under repair and expected to be thrown open for traffic in the coming week. It was opened for public in 2010 after being built by M/S Deepak Builders. Later, it was handed over to the National Highway Authority of India for maintenance.

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Divya GoyalDivya Goyal is our Punjab correspondent. Follow her on <a href="https:... read more