Airport line mess: It was all-round failure
Civil Contractors IJM-IJMII, Consultants ALC, Delhi Metro, Design Consultant Systra And Reliance Infra SPV Held Responsible
Dipak Kumar Dash | TNN
New Delhi: A “systemic failure” led to the closure of Delhi Airport Metro Line for over six months, according to the detailed findings of a two-member committee – constituted by the Union urban development ministry – that investigated the case. While the committee has largely held the civil contractor, infrastructure company IJMIJMII, responsible for the poor quality of work that led to failure of this premier line, it has come down heavily on other entities, including Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), for failing to play an “adequate” role and fulfill their “responsibility”.
“The cause of closure of this line from physical consideration can, certainty to a large extent, be safely said to be failure of the grout used above and below the bearings, combined with inadequate control on er on fieche as of ay at ed he xan e- it ld ld rk during construction, inspection at time of giving completion certificate or at the time of clearing the contractor from defect liability could also have prevented this failure.”
DMRC too believes that DAMEPL, Reliance Infra’s SPV, failed to fulfill its responsibility of carrying out routine and preventive maintenance of civil structures as per its contractual obligations. It claimed that early detection of the bearing failure could have avoided suspension of the service by fixing the problems. However, a DAMEPL official said they did not get detailed approved designs and drawings of structures from DMRC for carrying out inspection despite repeated official requests. “We were no way involved during the construction phase,” he added.
On DMRC’s failure to manage the project and constitute a team at a higher level for overall management and “course correction issues”, a source said the organization could have taken corrective action if the defects had been brought to its notice. “The system of appointing general consultants for supervision of the project as ‘engineer’ is being followed for the Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai metro projects. This practice is common across the world and the responsibility of quality, safety and entire project management rests with the general consultant. Therefore, there was no need for DMRC to constitute a team at a higher level,” said the source.
DMRC says ALC failed to bring the issue of quality of bearings to its notice. “Since we had appointed a team of experienced international project management consultants, it was not possible for DMRC to duplicate the supervising team,” said a source.
The committee has, however, observed that DMRC had fixed the minimum requirements which led to the selection of ALC but did not consider expertise in viaduct design checking as a significant criteria. Similarly, the selection of Systra as detailed design consultant (DDC) was on the basis of nomination rather than any formal selection process.
The report says that Systra and IJMIJMII failed to ensure a foolproof, correct and well thought-out design with a clear method statement and methodology for implementation besides also failing to exert rigid control on the process and outcome of execution of the pier cap as well as design elements above it and below the track structure.
The probe panel also pointed out that having selected a precast pretension Ugirder and a precast pier cap for the first time in India for faster completion, DMRC failed to ensure top-level monitoring. Responding to this charge, a DMRC official said: “In the entire viaduct construction, there has not been any problem as far as construction of the viaduct, viz. piers, pier cap and girders, are concerned. The issue
is related to the bearings’ grout which is a very small but critical part. And it was the responsibility of the contractor and ALC to execute this part of the work correctly and if any issue cropped up, to bring it to the notice of DMRC for taking corrective action.” DMRC argues that it’s actually because of monitoring by senior management that the viaduct could be completed in time with top class quality of ‘U’ girders, piers, pier cap, etc. barring only the grout issue.”
On the award of work to IJM-IJMII JV, the DMRC official said the committee never said that the contractor did not have the required experience. It commented only on the experience of the pre-cast pier cap. “The tender was floated with qualification criteria in order to ensure proper competition and the tender was accordingly awarded to IJM after it fulfilled all technical and qualification requirements mentioned in the tender document. Besides, DMRC also entrusted the job of detailed designing to a reputed and world renowned DDC, Systra, who had the requisite experience of designing a viaduct of the kind installed here,” the official said.
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