Chinese engineers blame GDCL for mishap

In their bail application,moved before Korba District and Sessions Judge M D Katulkar on Wednesday,the Chinese engineers quoted clauses from SEPCO’s agreement with M/s Gannon Dunkerley and Company Limited (GDCL) to point out that the chimney construction work was given exclusively to GDCL,which was solely responsible for taking care of the work and workers.

BALCO had entered into an engineering,construction and procurement contract with SEPCO for the plant. In turn,SEPCO had sub-contracted the work of construction of two chimneys to GDCL,under a March 2008 agreement.

The court adjourned the hearing on the bail plea to August 18 as the prosecution informed that the case dairy had been requisitioned by the Assembly,which is now in session.

The three Chinese — SEPCO general manager Wu Chuannan (35) and engineers Liu Gaoxuan (29) and Wang Weiging (25) — who were arrested on January 11, are now undergoing “treatment” at the Korba district hospital following complaints of hypertension. Four other accused,including a senior BALCO official,were also admitted to the hospital after arrest.

Brajesh Kumar Shukla,counsel for the Chinese engineers,said SEPCO’s agreement with GDCL stated that “for any injuries to persons and property,the contractor shall be liable for and shall indemnify,protect and defend and hold harmless the employer”.

No lightning strike,it was careless work: NIT experts

KORBA: Dismissing the theory that lightning could have caused the chimney collapse at the BALCO plant,experts from the National Institute of Technology,Raipur,have blamed the accident on “careless and poor construction practice” among other reasons.

Ruling out a lightning strike,a report prepared by four civil engineering experts at the NIT said no melted rebars were found at the site and postmortem reports of victims did not indicate death due to burning. In its conclusion,the experts said the soil investigation had not been carried out properly and careless,poor construction practice and workmanship were noticed in the construction of piles. “There has been a construction blunder in pile and pile cap connection. Improper cement content in the concrete mix and non-availability of proper instruments for temperature measurement were also noticed,” the report said.

The BALCO management has maintained that the chimney collapsed due to a lightning strike. But police relied on the scientific study by NIT and a Haryana-based institute to arrest the accused.