Title - Zamrudpur-fame Gammon at fault for Noida Metro cracks

The high-level investigation committee, instituted by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) MD Mangu Singh, has held the contractor — Gammon India Ltd-JMC JV -— responsible for the cracks in one of the cantilever arms of the Noida City Centre Metro Station."The detailing of reinforcement as provided in the approved drawing has not been completely adhered to by the execution team of the contractor. Responsibility for ensuring work as per drawing is with design and building contractor, which was M/s Gammon India Ltd-JMC JV, and design consultant M/S Arch Consultant," said a spokesperson of DMRC. It may be recalled that Gammon India was responsible for the terrible mishap at Zamrudpur in july 2009 that had claimed the lives of five DMRC labourers.The DMRC committee has decided to take action against contractor as per the terms of contract since liability lies with the contractor. Taking a serious view of the lapses in supervising the construction of Noida Metro Line, the DMRC has also suspended two of its engineers for their failure in detecting lapses during the construction. A decision to this effect was taken by the DMRC MD on Saturday after the probe team submitted the report.

Sources said, "The contractor did not use proper mixture of concrete and steel required as per the drawing and design of the structure."

A deflection in one of the cantilever arms of the Noida City Centre Metro station and reports of the platform sinking with cracks appearing on it prompted a worried DMRC to constitute a high-level committee to look into the problem.Meanwhile, well-placed sources said that DMRC has decided to bar the guilty contractor from any future works in DMRC's Phase-3 projects.

The MD has directed the DMRC to adopt a monitoring methodology to avoid such incidents in the future. He also ordered that photographic evidence of the material used should be kept on the record to reinforce the checking process before any concreting is done in such cases.