Happy New Year 2021

WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY, HEALTHY, PROSPEROUS AND PURPOSEFUL NEW YEAR 2020

Monday, August 23, 2010

Eyecatchers-151: Sidewall of Underpass Bridge on 4-lane NH collapses

If you think train journey is unsafe and you can take to road travel, please read this report. 

Mr.J.Arockiaraj of ENS writes in The New Indian Express of August 23, 2010 of the collapse of  the sidewall of underpass bridge towards Vadivelkarai from Nagamalai Pudukkottai in the Samayanallur-Virudhunagar National Highway four-way lane.  The construction is barely six months old.  It is alleged that faulty design and inferior construction have led to the collapse. Other details of the article make painful reading and I don't want to record them here. The official machinery will take its own time to attend to the problem and maybe they will spend some more public money and come up with some sort of temporary protection.

We don't know who is at fault for this collapse.  Generally, what I recorded elsewhere about trade unions and associations holds good for contractors also.  It seems nobody can touch them and they can get away with anything.  Usually such contractors have the backing of some strong politician or the 'benamis' or  close relatives of some powerful politician.  So it seems they can never be brought to the book if they commit any misdeed.  The least we can expect is that the concerned department will take up the problem at the earliest and does some corrective action or repair.

Grateful thanks to Mr.J.Arockiaraj of ENS and The New Indian Express for bringing out the news before the public.

No comments: