KOCHI: The tiff between Kerala Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organisation (KITCO) and the state government over the demolition of Palarivattom flyover continues with the state filing a report before the Supreme Court opposing KITCO’s claim. The KITCO had informed the Supreme Court that if the grids and slabs are demolished without conducting the weight test, the opportunity to test the flyover’s strength will be lost. Refuting the submission, the state government has filed a rejoinder stating that KITCO is trying to derail criminal investigation process against its officers who were under judicial custody for a long period. The Supreme Court will consider the petition filed by the state government on Tuesday.
KITCO was the consultant that approved the project design. According to the state government, the intention behind the baseless allegation against the state was malafide and with illegal designs.KITCO had stated that if the High Court order was implemented properly then the crisis in connection with the flyover could have been resolved. It also accused the government of trying to meet their goals indirectly, to which, the state replied that the very design and structure of the flyover was found faulty. The faulty design and execution was the result of the conspiracy among the highest officers of KITCO, the contractor and some other officers.
The government pointed out that as per the third report submitted by IIT Chennai, the load test was not technically feasible without completing the repair works which is valued more than `7 crore by the IIT. In that circumstance, the government had constituted a high-level technical committee comprising the chief engineers and design experts and as per their report, the flyover is to be demolished to the extent it requires and to be reconstructed.
Chief advisor of the DMRC Dr E Sreedharan, after inspection of the flyover and analysing the reports submitted by various agencies including that of the IIT Chennai, advised that even after the rectification work, if found satisfactory, will not make the flyover traffic worthy for more than 20 years. Whereas, the reconstruction with an amount of `18 crore will make the flyover traffic worthy for a period of about 100 years.