The Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK) is stepping up efforts to recover the cost of rebuilding pier caps, girders and slabs of the Palarivattom flyover from the firm that built the structure first. The agency has been facing flak for delay in recovering the amount although the rebuilt flyover was opened to traffic in March.
The move follows concerns being raised over the reconstruction cost having to be paid from the public exchequer, if there is any further delay in recovering the approximately ₹27 crore, estimated as the reconstruction cost.
RBDCK officials reiterated that the firm RDS Projects ought to pay the reconstruction cost since the flyover that it built developed cracks on its girders and a few pier caps within a year of its commissioning in 2016. The defect liability period (DLP) of the structure was three years and the firm was thus duty-bound to pay the reconstruction cost, they added.
Apart from rebuilding the pier caps, girders and slabs, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which was vested with the reconstruction task, had strengthened the pillars of the structure commissioned in 2016 by ‘concrete wrapping’. The reconstruction cost increased from an estimated ₹19 crore in 2019 to ₹23 crore, following a year’s delay in commencing the reconstruction work, after contractor bodies approached the High Court seeking a load test on the initial structure before deciding to pull it down. The DMRC incurred a total of around ₹27 crore as expenses, including the design and establishment cost, said official sources.
Sources in RBDCK said the DMRC had provided details of the expenses. “A couple of rounds of meetings would be needed to ensure clarity on this, following which we can officially claim the flyover’s reconstruction cost from RDS Projects,” they added.
The metro agency rebuilt the flyover using approximately ₹18 crore that it had saved while executing preparatory works like building bridges and the Edappally flyover for Kochi metro.
