BHUBANESWAR: A day after the chopper carrying Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik went out of radar for 45 minutes over the Maoist-affected Koraput, the Works Department issued a circular directing a three-layered verification of the coordinates for helipads to be constructed during visits of VVIPs.
Since the Works Department prepares the helipads at different districts, all coordinates would have to be checked and countersigned by engineers at three levels - the Junior Engineer, SDO and Executive Engineer.
Although the existing practice has a three-layered inspection, it merely required the superiors to sign the coordinates generated by the JE. ‘’We have instructed that henceforth it should be counterchecked at all the levels so as to leave no gaps,’’ Secretary, Works Nalini Kanta Pradhan said.
Investigation revealed that Thursday’s blunder, which left Naveen stranded mid-air for about 45 minutes, was result of a typographical error. After the coordinates report was generated, an error crept into the longitude and latitude during typing process.
Executive Engineer of Rayagada Biranchi Mohanty apparently did not verify the report and sent it to the Collector and SP of Koraput who in turn forwarded it to the Chief Minister’s office without cross-checking any further.