Kathmandu, June 14

The Parliament’s Development and Technology Committee has directed the concerned authorities to take action against Pappu Construction for cutting corners during the construction of the Bagmati Bridge in Tinkune.

The sub-panel submitted to the full panel today a field visit report, in which the faults in the bridge being built by Pappu Construction have been revealed.

According to the report, the contractor was supposed to instal 16 piles of 29.5 metres, but the piles measured only 16.5 metres in length. Moreover, cracks have already formed in two of the piles, while three others are in critical condition.

After coming to know about the condition of the under-construction bridge, Kathmandu Valley Road Expansion Project (KVREP) had directed the contractor company to repair the piles before continuing with the construction work. However, ignoring the given direction, Pappu Construction had built a sub-structure and started making preparations to lay concrete slab.

After that, the KVREP asked the contractor to re-design the bridge. However, as it was unsatisfied with the proposed re-designed model, the KVREP had sent it to the Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk for verification. The project is yet to receive any response from the institute.

Meanwhile, to avoid any untoward incident, the committee has directed KVREP to conduct technical studies of the bridge before continuing with its construction.

The under-construction bridge has already failed to meet its completion deadline, mainly owing to negligence of the contractor company. As mentioned in the report, the construction work was delayed in the beginning itself due to utility works.

The bridge construction project was handed over to the contractor on December 19, 2014. But it wasn’t until December 4, 2016 that the design of the bridge was approved. When the construction began, the completion deadline had been set at June 2018. But, citing several reasons, the contractor firm had failed to meet the deadline and the project was granted an extension of one year.

The estimated budget for the bridge construction is around Rs 308 million, while the contractor company had received the contract at Rs 210 million. Till now a total of Rs 66 million has already been spent on the project.