MP: Dangerous 90-Degree Turn Bridge: Action Taken Against 8 Engineers, Including 2 CES, One Retired SE

 Bhopal: Seven engineers including two chief engineers (CEs) of the Madhya Pradesh government have been suspended while departmental enquiry has been ordered against a retired superintendent engineer (SE) in the connection with the faulty design of a railway over bridge (ROB) here, providing a dangerous 90-degree turn.

The action against the engineers comes after chief minister Mohan Yadav took serious note of the issue and ordered an inquiry into it, a spokesman of the state government said here on Sunday.

“The action against seven serving engineers and a retired SE has been taken based on the investigation report on the issue”, the spokesman said.

Two CEs, G P Verma, and Sanjay Khande, two executive engineers, Javed Shakeel and Sabna Razzak (design), one assistant engineer, Shanul Saxena (design), department officer Ravi Shukla and junior engineer Uma Shankar Mishra have been placed under suspension with immediate effect, the spokesman said.

A departmental enquiry has been ordered against SE M P Singh in the case, the spokesman added.

This apart, a construction agency and a design consultant, who were engaged in the construction of the ROB at Aishbagh railway crossing, were blacklisted, the spokesman said.

Sources said the design of the ROB was changed thrice in the last seven years before executing the plan providing a 90-degree turn in the bridge.

Earlier, the state public works department (PWD), which had undertaken the bridge project jointly with the railways, sought to explain the peculiar 90-degree turn in the ROB, attributing it to non-availability of land.

However, the state PWD minister Rakesh Singh ordered a probe into it in the wake of mounting public pressure to modify the bridge.

The rectangle turn in the bridge has raised public apprehension that it may turn into a hotspot of accidents.