The State Government has filed a petition in the Kerala High Court seeking to review the court’s order to conduct a load test on the Palarivattom flyover for determining the structural stability and load-bearing capacity before demolishing it.
A Division Bench had directed the State Government to conduct the load test in three months and file a statement after conducting the test along with the report of the load test. It had ordered contractor RDS Project Limited to bear the entire expenses for the load test.
In its review petition, the Government said that conduct of load test was essentially the discretion of the State Government. The High Court ought to have considered that the Government exercised the discretion not to do load test based on cogent and compelling reasons.
Expert opinions and reports obtained by the government said that no useful purpose would be served by a load test as the flyover was already in a "distressed condition.” Besides there was no clause in the contract mandating a load test.
The Government submitted that the High Court had failed to weigh the concerns of the public which the Government considered while arriving at its decision to replace distressed girders and pier heads. The bridge had been closed for more than seven months, putting the public to severe inconvenience. It would take three months to conduct a load test and another nine months for repairs and replacement of the girders.
The State Government sought to stay the operation of the High Court order. The review petition is likely to come up before the Bench next week.
The Kerala Government Contractors’ Association (KGCA) had, on Friday, said that it would place fully-loaded heavy vehicles in a row on the faulty flyover on February 21, the day the deadline set by the High Court for the test ends, if the Government failed to do a load test before that.
