'Rats' are the culprits in Ludhiana flyover wall collapse incident

Representative image

On the night of May 13, a retaining wall of the Gill flyover, one of the busiest places in the city of Ludhiana collapsed. Going by the initial inquiry reports, 'rats' are to be blamed for this tragic incident. The report was conducted by a four member committee comprising of Ludhiana addition deputy commissioner (development) Shena Aggarwal, MC executive engineer Rahul Gagneja, executive engineer (PWD) Rakesh Garg and GLADA executive engineer Ranbir Singh.

According to a report by Hindustan Times, several rat burrows were detected all around the wall and in the earth under bridge portion. The inquiry report states that at the time of inspection it was noticed that there were big holes in the geogrid net which clearly indicates that the reinforcing geogrid was rat-eaten at many places. The failure of the wall was due to bitten geogrid net, which got weakened and lost its strength required for holding them together. No official from Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC) or the contractor was held responsible for the collapse of the wall.

The following solutions were recommended by the four member committee to safeguard the future of all other bridges:

• Garbage dumps under the bridges should be shifted immediately
• Rat burrows should be located and pressure grouted
• The bulging RE wall panels should be strengthened and the reverse slope if any should be rectified.
• To maintain gap between the reinforced earth walls and approach slab.

During their survey, they observed that:

• The other side of the retaining wall has bulged out and is on the verge of a collapse
• The walls are out of plumb beyond permissible limits
• The precast RCC blocks are not properly locked with each other
• Water seepage from top is also an issue.