Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation inert on probe into dangerous Hatkeshwar flyover

AHMEDABAD: Who will bear the cost of the badly built Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj flyover at Hatkeshwar, which was found to have porous concrete with just 20% of the required compressive strength? This question is staring the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) in the face. The civic body had carelessly agreed to just a one-year defect liability period for the flyover. The life of the flyover, ironically, was estimated to be 50 years.
"The one-year defect liability period meant that if the flyover was built in 2017, its guarantee period ended in 2018. The contractor, Ajay Engineering Pvt Ltd, is thus not liable for repairs, pulling it down or even retrofitting it after 2018," said a senior AMC engineer.
Five NABL-certified laboratories, including IIT-Roorkee, reported in 2023 that the flyover is dangerous and should not be used. The AMC has yet to begin an inquiry into blacklisting the contractor, six months after the flyover closed to traffic.
Only on Tuesday, after repeated reminders, was AMC's vigilance department allowed to collect 3,000 pages pertaining to the flyover from the civic body's own engineering department.
An official, who did not want to be named, said, "We submitted all the documents today. The statements of officers will now be recorded as required by the investigation."
The four-lane Hatkeshwar flyover connects Khokhra and CTM Road in the eastern part of the city.
The flyover design was approved by the roads and buildings (R&B) department in 2015. Construction was completed in 2017, at a cost of Rs 39.87 crore. It opened to traffic the same year.
In March 2021, the top of the pre-stressed concrete box suffered serious damage. Rebound hammer tests were then conducted by a private NBL-certified lab which revealed that the concrete was very weak. Between February 2022 and August 2022, many more parts of the 45m span of the flyover suffered serious damage.