The crash of a 100-metre section of a flyover under construction in a busy part of Kolkata on Thursday afternoon is in reality a dirge to serious governance deficit in a developing country. The nightmarish incident in which 25 persons were killed, and injury was caused to nearly a hundred, does not qualify to be an accident, leave alone an “act of God”, as suggested by senior executives of the infrastructure firm IVRCL, the Hyderabad-based company which has not completed the Vivekananda Setu flyover although it was commissioned to do so back in 2009.
This was the time of the CPM-led Left Front government in West Bengal. It appears that only about 80 per cent of the flyover has been constructed in seven years. This suggests that the erstwhile Left government also tolerated the laggard ways of the supplier. Was there graft involved? Equally, in the subsequent five years of Trinamul Congress rule with Ms Banerjee as Chief Minister, the dismal progress has been striking. Again, was it on account of corruption that the errant company wasn’t sent packing long ago?
West Bengal is in the midst of campaigning for elections to the state Assembly and the CPM and the Trinamul will point fingers at one another to escape popular wrath. In India, this is par for the course. The need is to fix responsibility. Politicians and officials — in the Trinamul and the earlier Left Front government — responsible for the award of the Vivekananda Setu contract and its supervision should be brought under the scanner on an urgent basis, not just the key officials of the supplier company.
The company in question was already on the watch list of the Railways which terminated several contracts given out to it for “non-performance”. It is a pity this did not ring warning bells in Kolkata. The Centre should bring into being a real-time and on-line registry of companies that do not execute works on time.
This will be useful to state governments and public and private entities at a time of rapid industrialisation and infrastructure-building. Prima facie, it appears that shoddy materials and low-grade steel of unsatisfactory specifications were used, and on account of the long delays, the poor quality steel had begun to rust and could not successfully bind the concrete on the flyover.
There was obviously no quality control and monitoring of schedule on account of corruption. Another aspect of poor governance is decision-making delays. It seems the Calcutta Port Trust inordinately delayed permission on a stretch of land in their control. The high-level inquiry that’s been ordered should bring out the facts in quick time and appropriate action taken.
