Slab of flyover under construction collapses, 1 hurt

After the Varanasi flyover tragedy that left 18 persons dead in May this year, a slab of an under-construction flyover of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) suddenly collapsed at Phutaiyya Chauraha in Basti district on Saturday, leaving one injured. 

Luckily, the slab collapsed  on Saturday morning when no traffic was passing through the area. Only a labourer on duty in the night shift was injured and he was immediately admitted to the district hospital for treatment, District Magistrate of Basti, Raj Shekhar said. 

Shekhar said the administration spoke to the contractor who had hired the labourer and local workers and they confirmed that no other person was injured or missing. 

He said that traffic was disrupted for some time but later opened after setting up barricades.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while taking cognizance of the incident, directed the district administration to provide the best possible treatment to the injures, ensure smooth flow of traffic and take all possible measures so that such incidents did not recur. 

The district administration informed project director NHAI (MoRTH) about the incident and asked him to look into the issue immediately and take appropriate measures on priority.

According to sources, the NHAI has given the contract for construction of the flyover to Hyderabad-based KCL Infra Project Private Limited. Later the KCL outsourced the work to Vijay Construction (India) Private Limited, a UP-based firm reportedly own by a kin of a member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh. 

Sources said that on learning about the connection of the construction firm with the ruling party, the local administration only informed the NHAI about the incident instead of registering a criminal case in this regard. 

The sources said that the slab collapse also exposed that sub-standard material was used in the construction.

It may be mentioned that in the Varanasi tragedy, the beam of a flyover under construction had collapsed due to the negligence of the officials but in Basti, compromise has been made with the quality. 

The foundation of the said flyover had been laid by Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in 2015. 

Meanwhile, Congress leader in  the Legislative Council, Deepak Singh, alleged large-scale corruption in the ongoing construction works in the Bharatiya Janata Party led government and demanded a judicial probe into the matter. 

“First, a flyover being constructed by UP Bridge Corporation Limited, a state government agency, collapsed in Varanasi and now a similar incident has taken place in Basti. Both projects are of NHAI, a Central government undertaking. This clearly indicates that corruption is rampant in BJP rule so a judicial probe should be ordered into this incident,” he said and criticised the government for the poor quality of construction.