SWABI: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has taken notice of the collapse of under-construction Gohati Bridge in Swabi and sought a report in this regard from the concerned authorities after transparent investigation.

According to a handout, the chief minister said that a report about the incident should be submitted to him while making it clear whether substandard material was used in construction of the bridge or not.

He said the provincial government would take strict action if use of substandard material in the project was proved. The chief minister said there would be no compromise on use of quality material in construction projects in the province.

Meanwhile, Engineer Mohammad Asif Khan, team leader of Swabi-Mardan road project, said in his report that collapse of Gohati Bridge was result of a “mechanical failure”.

Project head says incident result of ‘mechanical failure’

The report submitted to the project director of communications and works department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, seen by this correspondent, said the incident occurred due to the failure of jack machine and not because of low quality work.

Asif Khan stated that the launch of third beam was in process when due to failure of hydraulic jack it fell down and hit the other two, leading to “incidental accident.”

He said all safety measures were taken in their presence and no human/property loss occurred.

Yasir Khan, project manager, told mediapersons at the bridge site that they had removed the debris of collapsed beams and planned to construct three more.

“Such incidents are part of construction activities,” he said.

Shad Khan, technical expert of the project, said the bridge collapsed as a result of a “technical fault.”

The bridge collapsed on Wednesday, drawing criticism from the opposition parties and local people, who alleged use of substandard material in the beams and other sections of the 42km under-construction road.

Shad Khan said the Swabi-Mardan road was an international project, financed by the Asian Development Bank and its reconstruction terms and conditions were according to the global standard and quality of the work was regularly being checked.

Answering a question, he said the three other beams were not yet brought to the site and anyone could check their quality and standard. He said the collapse occurred due to human error because the place of fixing hydraulic jack was not properly checked by the concerned staff.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2022