A special team from the National Games Secretariat on Monday inspected the site at the Corporation Stadium where a portion of the roof collapsed recently injuring two workers.
S. Kishanchand, Executive Engineer with the National Games Secretariat, who led the team, said the collapse was the result of an “individual oversight” at the worksite rather than an engineering lapse or a structural or technical fault.
On November 29, 150 square feet of the roof of the stadium’s under-construction grandstand pavilion fell. The stadium is one of the main venues for the 35 National Games scheduled to be held in the State in 2014.
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The Kozhikode Corporation, which owns the stadium, said it was not responsible for the quality of work, and the liability for the accident lay on the National Games Authority and their contractors.
This is the second time that the roof of the pavilion had collapsed in a month. A chunk of the roof had fallen on November 14, injuring a worker.
Mr. Kishanchand termed the repeated phenomenon “unfortunate”, but steered clear of taking responsibility for the accidents.
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Mayor’s version
The Corporation is also on the same page of denial with Mayor A.K. Premajam issuing a public letter, clarifying that the civic body had no role in the construction except for contributing 45 per cent of the expenses as per an agreement with the National Games Authority. The grandstand pavilion is estimated to cost Rs.19 crore.
“We are taking a serious view of the repeated incidents. This time there was an imbalance in lateral pressure owing to a block in the concrete pump. This led to the sagging and ultimately the collapse of the supporting formwork,” Mr. Kishanchand said. He said an inspection report would be filed with the Secretariat’s chief engineer.
By December 31
Meanwhile, Mr. Kishanchand said directions had already been given to contractors to remove the entire scaffolding and re-do it.
When asked whether the incident would further delay the completion of the work, he said it would not affect the deadline. “The structural work for the pavilion is supposed to be completed by December 31,” he said.
But the pavilion work is already two months behind schedule, as the initial deadline was September 10. .
In her letter, the Mayor mentioned the delay in the work. “The work on the grandstand pavilion was supposed to be completed in a time-bound manner without any lapses. We have conveyed this to National Games Authority Chief Executive Officer Jacob Punnoose,” she said.
“But the contractors are not bothered. We have several times notified the secretariat. We had consulted Mr. Punnoose on this and the monitoring committee had given strict instructions to speed up the work.
Agencies entrusted with supervising the contractors are not acting responsibly. The fact that the pavilion had collapsed twice before has caused great anxiety among the public and sports lovers here,” the Mayor wrote.
The grandstand is planned to meet international standards, and will have facilities including a medical treatment space, a media room, VIP lounge, dressing rooms and space for officials’ room.