The State government will demolish and reconstruct the arterial flyover bridge at Palarvattom in Kochi.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Principal Advisor E. Sreedharan had agreed to supervise the project. The government hoped to complete the project within eight months. The Supreme Court had permitted a new bridge in place of the defunct one.
He said political corruption and criminal lack of oversight had resulted in the shoddy construction. A New Delhi-based private firm had executed the work during the tenure of the previous United Democratic Front government.
Scores of cracks had developed in the construction a few months after it was opened to traffic. Technical experts doubted the structural integrity of the bridge. They advised the government to decommission it in the interest of public safety.
The ambitious project to ease traffic in Kochi had in few months metamorphosed into a symbol of political sleaze during the previous government, Mr. Vijayan said.
"Palarivattom is just the tip of the iceberg," he said. The anti-corruption inquiry into the construction fraud had neared its conclusion. “No corrupt person will escape. The government will bring them before the law. Those who robbed the exchequer will be made accountable to the people legally,” he said.
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) had, so far, arrested four persons, including former Public Works Department Secretary T.O. Sooraj, in connection with the multi-crore bribery case. It had questioned former Public Works Minister V.K. Ebrahim Kunju several times based on Mr. Sooraj's statement.
The accusation against Mr. Kunju was that he had stacked the deck in favour of the builder.
Mr. Kunju had allegedly ordered the release of ₹9 crore from the Treasury as advance to the builder. The UDF government had extended the aid at a nominal rate of interest "brazenly advantageous" to the private firm. The act had resulted in a loss of ₹60 lakh to the exchequer.
Mr. Kunju had denied the accusations of bribery. He maintained that as Minister he had merely given administrative sanction for the project.