Collapse of national highway in Kollam; Expert panel to submit report, more steps likely to be taken

KOLLAM: The expert committee will soon submit a report on the collapse of the national highway and formation of a large crater. A three-member group of experts under Dr Jimmy Thomas from IIT Kanpur and Dr T K Suresh from IIT Palakkad visited the place yesterday. The primary conclusion of the central ministry of road transportation and highways mentioned a lapse on the basic construction of the national highway and soil examination. Based on it, the center has imposed ban for Sivalaya Construction and independent engineering consultants.
Further steps will be taken based on the expert committee’s report. It will also be examined that whether there is any lapse from the side of the national highway authority officials. NHAI informed the district administrators that the reconstruction of the service road will be completed soon to restore the transportation. The national highway collapsed on Friday by 5pm. Vehicle including school bus had a narrow escape.
A one-month ban had been imposed on the contract companies following the incident. The ban is on participating in tenders. A show cause notice was issued for not including them in the black list. A reply must be given within 15 days. Action is likely to be taken against many including the officials of the national highway authority. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has evaluated the incident.
Meantime, the preliminary investigation report says that the failure to construct a strong and suitable foundation based on soil studies led to the collapse of both the elevated highway and the service road. The soil from the elevated structure pushed into the weak paddy field area, causing the accident. Soil was filled up to a height of 9.4 meters, but no strong foundation or retaining wall was built on the sides of the elevated road or between the service road and the paddy field.