All are at fault, says IIT report on Kolkata flyover collapse

Multiple reasons —faulty design, poor quality of raw material and lack of supervision — led to the collapse of the under-construction flyover in central Kolkata on March 31 this year, said the report of an expert committee comprising former faculty members of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur ( IIT-KGP).

The committee was set up by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to probe the collapse that led to the death of 27 persons.

“We have found defects in multiple aspects of the flyover construction. Be it the design, the construction, the raw material and the supervision, all were at fault,” Anandapran Gupta, former head of the department of civil engineering at IIT-KGP, told The Hindu on Thursday.

Along with Professor Gupta, another retired professor, Swapan Majumdar, from the structural engineering department of the IIT-KGP, was also probing the collapse, one of the worst civic disasters in the city. On August 10, the committee had submitted its report to the State government. The government had asked the panel of experts to decide on the future of the flyover — whether the State government should complete the work or dismantle the structure.

Ten officials in jail

Though Kolkata Metropolitan Development Agency (KMDA) had commissioned the work, the Hyderabad-based infrastructure company IVRCL was constructing the flyover. Ten officials, including directors of the firm, were arrested and are still behind bars.

While the police had earlier brought murder charges in the case, the charge was later dropped. Instead, charges under Section 304 of the IPC (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) were brought in the charge sheet submitted in June.