Ghaziabad roof collapse: ‘Substandard material’ and ‘design issues’ led to structural failure, finds initial report

Ghaziabad: An initial report of site inspection has indicated “substandard material” and “design issues”, which might have led to structural failure at the cremation

Ghaziabad: An initial report of site inspection has indicated “substandard material” and “design issues”, which might have led to structural failure at the cremation ground in Muradnagar, resulting in the death of 24 people in a roof collapse on Sunday.

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The report is now a part of the inquiry being conducted by the divisional commissioner (Meerut) and inspector general (Meerut range) into the incident.

The senior officers had called on the chief engineers of the Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) and the municipal-corporation for an initial site inspection of the cremation ground.

“Inspection revealed that there were issues related to substandard material and design which finally led to structural failure. Upon inspection, the material appeared to be of inferior quality and more testing is to be done to ascertain the quality. The officials of Muradnagar Nagar Palika could not show us the proper designs of the structure,” said VN Singh, chief engineer of the Ghaziabad development authority.

The executive officer of the Nagar Palika, besides a junior engineer and a supervisor, were arrested on Monday in connection with the incident.

Officials said they also found out that the junior engineer of the Nagar Palika had allegedly signed the measurement book, while the executive engineer of the public works department, and their assistant engineer, had allegedly provided their signatures for forwarding of bills.

Manish Verma, executive engineer of the PWD, did not respond to calls.

The contract for the construction was given to Ajay Tyagi, who has been booked. The police said that the suspect is absconding.

“The inquiry assigned to us is most likely to get complete by Tuesday and will be forwarded to the state administration. We are analysing all aspects and documents related to the incident,” said Praveen Kumar, inspector general (Meerut range).

The inquiry at Muradnagar was directed by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday.

Meanwhile, it has come to light that Tyagi had allegedly also procured contracts for a number of civic infrastructural works with the Ghaziabad municipal corporation.

“Tyagi has contracts with the corporation. At this point there are only allegations that inferior quality material was used at Muradnagar and this should be inquired. If there is some scientific report which confirms this, we will take up suitable action. The initial report was sought by the district magistrate and this needs to be investigated,” said MS Tanwar, municipal-commissioner.

“However, we are conducting random inspections of our works and are also checking up the quality of construction of works taken up by Tyagi,” he added.

The structure which collapsed was about 40 feet in length and assigned to the contracture for Rs 50 lakh from the Fourteenth Finance Commission. Nagar Palika’s executive officer Niharika Singh on Sunday said that construction was pending and had faced delays due to lockdown.

Meanwhile, hundreds of onlookers came to the Ukhlarsi cremation ground where leftover bags, shoes, helmets and other items of the victims were lying scattered in the debris.

“It is one of the biggest incidents in the district where so many people have lost lives. The debris indicates that the material was inferior quality – parts of it can be broken down with a normal brick. There are no priests at the cremation ground as people attacked them after the incident on Sunday. They have locked their house and left the place,” said Sunil Sharma, a local resident of Muradnagar.