KOCHI: As the blame-game continues on what went wrong with the Palarivattom flyover, which is at the centre of a storm for developing cracks within 29-months of its commissioning, the state government has decided to go back to the proven old construction method and dump the new technology to remove the existing flaws.

While senior officers of IIT Madras, who on Sunday concluded its two-day inspection at the Palarivattom flyover, blamed both structural design and inferior construction for the issue, the officers with the consultant Kitco and the implementing agency Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK) blamed the faults to the new technology.

“There are faults both in the design and in construction,” P Alagusundaramoorthy, professor, Structural Engineering Laboratory, Dept of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, told reporters.

However, G Pramod, one of the acting MD of Kitco, the consultants for the project, told Express that the problem was caused due to the use of a new technology ‘deck continuity’, which is used in many parts in north India with good results. “We decided to use the new technology for giving more riding comfort for motorists as this tech provides for lesser number of joints in the flyover. This tech requires just one joint for three slabs,” he explained.

An engineer of the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK), the implementing agency, said frequent rains in the state may not be suitable for the new deck continuity technology. “This tech has been used in a flyover in Bengaluru without any problem. May be the frequent rains in Kerala is causing the problem,” he said.

Pramod of Kitco said it is yet to be established whether rains are the reason for the sudden development of potholes on the flyover.

PWD Minister G Sudhakaran, while giving a clean chit to the previous UDF regime regarding the faulty construction, had blamed both Kitco and RBDCK for the “sloppy work”. Pramod told Express that he along with one of his senior engineers met the minister and gave a detailed explanation on the matter. He said the project will now be “rehabilitated” using the old ‘strip-seal’ technology.

No corruption

Pramod said Delhi-based RDS Projects Ltd., the EPC contractor of the flyover, is under obligation to do all repair works and other liabilities that comes about within three-years of its construction.“We had noticed the cracks within one year itself, and had intimated the contractor. There is no loss to the exchequer whatsoever,” he said. “We approved their (RDS) design. In that way, we are responsible,” Pramod said.