Concrete slab falls off HH Chowk flyover

Gurgaon: A concrete slab fell from the Hero Honda Chowk flyover for the second time within a year on Wednesday, raising concerns over the quality of work on the bridge which was opened after many delays to unclog a perennially congested crossing on NH8. Gurgaon traffic police tweeted about the incident in the morning to alert citizens.
“Around 2am a concrete chunk fell from the flyover. After we received the news, traffic staff rushed to the spot and barricaded it with cones. Initially, the entire flyover was closed to traffic for safety reasons, but after NHAI gave it to us in writing that two lanes could be used, we opened them. Traffic police will remain at the spot till the damage is repaired,” said DCP (traffic) Himanshu Garg. On a spot visit, TOI found NHAI workers laying coal tar on the gap created due to the incident.
The NHAI engineer at the spot, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the cause of the damage had not been ascertained yet, and for now, the department was simply trying to block the gap.
In April 2018, a similar incident was reported after which NHAI and Valecha Engineering Ltd (the agency which built the flyover at a cost of Rs 200 crore and is in charge of its maintenance) roped in IIT-Bombay to conduct an audit and ascertain the cause of the damage.
The IIT-B report had highlighted lapses, which were never made public, but NHAI, afterwards, claimed to have fixed things based on the recommendations of the team. Now, NHAI and Valecha’s accountability has come under the scanner.
RTI activist Ramesh Kumar has written to the SHO of the Sector 27 police station about the incident and demanded a probe.
Earlier, he had filed an RTI query related to flyover construction but even after four months, NHAI has not given a reply.
“When Rampura flyover suffered a similar damage, I went to take stock of the situation and was surprised to see that the spacing between iron rods, which formed the flyover backbone, was too much. I talked with a couple of officials and they suggested that an RTI would bring out the truth,” said Kumar.
NHAI project director Ashok Sharma and Valecha’s project manager Madhusudhan Rao remained unavailable for comments, despite repeated attempts. However, BB Jindal, the manager (technical) of NHAI, claimed that the department would form a special committee to look into the issue. “We had implemented the suggestions of IIT-B but don’t know why this has happened again. The department will form a special committee to conduct an internal audit and suggest measures to fix the issue,” he said. On the other hand, the latest incident has created panic among commuters. Neeta (26), who stopped on the flyover after the incident to understand what was happening, said, “I’m really scared now. I can’t take this flyover. Who knows when the entire bridge will collapse? Also, I don’t want to face traffic snarls on this stretch till this damage is fixed.”