KARACHI, Feb 24: The federal ministry of communications has released an inquiry report of the September 2007 Shershah bridge collapse, holding a private consultant and the National Highway Authority (NHA) responsible for the tragedy.

Some half a dozen people were killed in the accident while the collapse caused losses worth billions of rupees to the exchequer.

However, while making the report – prepared by the Prime Minister’s Inquiry Committee (PMIC), which presented it to the authorities in February 2008 – public, the ministry did not come up with any reason explaining why it took more than a year to release the names of the individuals and organisations responsible for the act of “criminal negligence”.

The delay caused President Asif Ali Zardari to intervene. At a briefing at the presidency on the performance of the NHA last week, he asked the authorities concerned to make the report public.

Surprisingly the findings and the recommendations incorporated into the report more than a year ago seem to have made little impact on the authorities concerned as none of the recommendations made by the experts after going through the roles and contributions of every individual and organisation have been implemented by the government.

Interestingly, the inquiry team, during the course of the investigation, questioned the role of the National Logistics Cell (NLC), which outsourced the project to the private consultant – Engineering Consultants International Limited (ECIL) – but did not find the NLC among those responsible for the deadly incident.

“The word criminal neglect on the part of M/S ECIL seems to be too feeble a word to express the wrong they committed,” says the report while compiling its findings and fixing responsibility.

“Due to (the) egregious structural design of the bridge, M/S ECIL are solely responsible for the physical collapse of the Paracha Chowk Bridge.”

Representatives of M/S ECIL were unavailable for comment.

The report also reached the conclusion that the federally-administered NHA, which launched, initiated and supervised the project both as the regulatory body and the government’s representative, contributed to the criminal act.

“Notwithstanding the physical collapse due to faulty structural design, the neglect on part of (the) NHA in discharging its duties shall, however, remain the root cause of collapse of the Paracha Chowk Box Girder Bridge, as (the) NHA ignominiously failed to ensure implementation of the project,” the report observes.

The inquiry report, which was signed by three of the committee members despite the fact that the task was initially assigned to seven experts, also named the senior officials of both the organisations, who had been declared responsible at individual levels.

ECIL chairman Zaheer Mirza, along with all the directors of the company, have been declared responsible for the tragedy. Similarly, former chairman of the NHA, retired Major-General Farrukh Javed, with some of his team members have been found guilty of the same criminal negligence.

The 70-metre Baldia loop of the Shershah bridge collapsed on Sept 1, 2007, a mere 20 days after its inauguration by then president Pervez Musharraf. The accident claimed nearly half a dozen lives. Dozens of people were trapped under the mangled mass of concrete for over seven hours before being rescued by government organisations and volunteers.

Along with action against the culprits, reconstruction of the bridge seemed to be at a standstill till a few months back, as the tragedy put a stop to the reconstruction of the over Rs3.5 billion Northern Bypass project. Also, the findings of the inquiry, ordered by the then president and prime minister hours after the incident, took around 17 months to materialise.

In total contrast to the suggestions of the inquiry committee, which also named some senior officials and recommended action against them, one of them had been promoted as chairman NHA well before the report was made public. Similarly, the “recommendations for immediate action” mentioned in the report are also awaited.

“The name of M/S ECIL should immediately be removed from the list of short-listed consultants and the firm should be blacklisted for undertaking consultancy job in the future,” the report recommends. “Pakistan Engineering Council should also not only be informed of the decision and the basis thereof but also be requested to initiate appropriate and exemplary action against the company and its directors.”