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KARACHI, Nov 24: As the federal government prepares to release the inquiry report regarding the collapse of the Shershah bridge, which killed over a dozen people on Sept 1, it emerges that a top quality-control body did not even collect construction material samples – which could have indicated construction standards – from the debris despite clear directives from higher authorities, Dawn has learnt.
Sources close to the process of inquiry, taking place under orders of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, said that the team of experts conducting the inquiry was in Islamabad to draft the report.
“The report is expected in December but the date cannot be predicted at this point,” said the sources, citing details of the last meeting held in the second week of November by Shamim Siddiqui, the federal minister for communications in the recently dissolved cabinet.
Mr Siddiqui confirmed that the four-member inquiry team had nearly completed its investigations and just the compilation of the findings remained. “The job was of a very sensitive nature and it was a huge responsibility, so the team needed sufficient time,” he told Dawn. “The inquiry committee recorded the statements of 38 people from different organisations who had been involved in the project in different capacities. It was no easy task.”
Other than the committee set up to investigate the reasons behind the collapse of the 70-metre Baldia loop of the Shershah bridge a mere 20 days after its inauguration, the ministry of science and technology had also directed the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) to check the quality of the material used in the construction of the fallen structure.
Nearly three months after the tragic incident, however, the federally-administered organisation has not collected any samples from the site. Even after the release of the expected report, therefore, the quality of cement, iron, bricks and other material used in the multi-million rupee project is likely to remain an unanswered question.
“No samples have been brought to the PSQCA for testing,” said an official of the authority when asked about the quality of the construction material. However, he did not give any details about why the samples were not collected.
The debris of the collapsed bridge lay abandoned on the site for nearly a month after the incident but PSQCA officials could give no explanation as to what prevented them from collecting samples that could have provided vital clues about the reasons behind the tragedy.
The Shershah bridge, which formed part of the recently inaugurated Northern Bypass, collapsed without warning on Sept 1. Dozens of people were trapped under the mangled mass of concrete for over seven hours before being rescued by government organisations and volunteers.
It was suspected at the time that the collapse occurred because of serious faults in the design and structure of the bridge, which was open to traffic despite earlier recommendations for reconstruction by the ministry of communications.
According to Mr Siddiqui, the inquiry committee’s investigations focused mainly on the bridge’s design. While he agreed that it could also have checked the standard of the construction material, he pointed out that this was not the inquiry committee’s primary task.
“There were several other issues that were more important for the committee to investigate,” he said. “Hopefully, the committee would have considered the issue of the quality of the material but I think it focussed mainly on the design and alignment of the pillars, which could not withstand the burden and slipped.”
