THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The tourism department has landed in a tight spot with the police nearly ruling out vandalism as the cause of the mysterious cracks at the recently constructed glass bridge at Akkulam, Thiruvananthapuram. It has also raised serious concerns regarding the bridge’s construction and safety measures taken by the agencies involved including the tourism department, District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC), Kerala Adventure Tourism Promotion Council (KATPC) and the Vattiyoorkavu Youth Brigade Entrepreneur Cooperative Society (VYBECOS) – the agency roped in by the tourism department to execute the project.
On Friday, the forensic team carried out an investigation on the bridge to probe the cause of the crack. VYBECOS had filed a complaint with the Sreekaryam police alleging vandalism being the cause of damage. A police officer investigating the case said that vandalism was highly unlikely.
“The cracks occurred on the surface under the bridge, not on the top. It’s humanly impossible to reach out beneath the bridge and inflict such damage. More scientific investigation is required to find out other potential causes,” said the officer.
The Sreekaryam police have registered a case under IPC Sections 447 and 427, indicating possible trespassing and damage of property. “We have summoned the manufacturer of the glass to conduct another round of inspection in their presence,” the officer added.
Meanwhile, Vattiyoorkavu MLA V K Prasanth had a different take on the issue, claiming that it could be a gunshot that caused the damage on the bridge. He alleged that the damage was done intentionally to sabotage the operations of VYBECOS. “We are not happy with the security at Akkulam Tourist Village and we suspect that the damage was inflicted intentionally to sabotage the project. It could be a gunshot but there are not enough CCTVs installed at the village to confirm this. Since the introduction of adventure tourism at the village, the staff here have been upset as they were forced to work more efficiently. The revenue generation has multiplied at the village because of our involvement. We have pointed out these things to the government and the police,” said the MLA.
Recently, the National Institute of Technology Calicut (NIT-C) had inspected the glass bridge. Prof T M Madhavan Pillai of the Department of Civil Engineering, who led the safety inspection of the glass bridge, told TNIE that they found nothing wrong with the bridge.
“We assessed the safety and structural stability of the glass bridge and found it to be intact. The glass used for the construction of the bridge already had the safety clearance and is of good grades. Hence, we didn’t check the quality of the glass,” said Madhavan.
Sanjeev S J of Environment Protection Research Council, who filed several RTIs regarding the glass bridge, said that he has not received any reply from the DTPC regarding the agency that constructed the bridge. “It’s a high security zone because of the presence of the Southern Air Command. Hence, there is no possibility of vandalism. It is shady as the construction and the execution of the project has not been done in a transparent manner,” he alleged.
Built at a cost of Rs 12 crore
The glass used for the glass bridge was bought from Saint-Gobain – a global glass manufacturing company. Each glass panel weighs around 1 tonne and is constituted of three layers with a total thickness of 36 mm. The 52-metre-long bridge with a height of 75 feet was constructed at a cost of Rs 1.2 crore using private investment.