HC asks COEP to submit structural audit report of Pune metro

The Bombay High Court on Monday sought a fresh structural report as the hearing on the Public Interest Litigation raised concerns over the quality of construction of the metro rail network in Pune city.

The bench of acting Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne asked the College of Engineering in Pune to submit a fresh audit report of the structure of the metro project works of the stretch between Vanaz and Garware college within seven days.

The PIL was filed by city-based Narayan Kochak and Shirish Khasbardar who sought a “court-monitored probe into the quality of construction and structural safety of the superstructures of the Pune Metro stations and systematic failure of quality assurance and quality control system of the Pune Metro rail projects”.

Ashish Patankar, an advocate who represented the petitioners told the media that the court made some “strong observations regarding the concerns raised in the PIL which we had filed regarding the sub-standard quality of works and public safety, before the petition was disposed off.

The petitioners in their petition had made some observations about the metro stations between Vanaz and Garware college stating that the lapses at the Metro stations pertained to the structure of column beams, unfinished works, missing bolts, mismatching alignments and lapses in the work.

Amidst this row, Maha Metro has now sought help from the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) Nagpur to conduct a comprehensive study of the Pune Metro construction works. The team was in Pune to conduct the study and shall continue it for the next seven days. 

For previous article on the Pune Metro story, click on the link below :