IVRCL, the infrastructure company, is in Gammon-like trouble. The company is currently facing an investigation by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for causing death of two workers by being negligent towards the working conditions.
The state labour department has recommended that the civic body blacklist the firm.
IVRCL has taken up work to lay a sewerage pipeline in a part of Hyderabad. The Rs 6.5 crore order includes laying 35 pipes. However, last week, a 20 feet trench at Uppal in the city caved in and two workers died.
IVRCL has completed laying about 23 pipes and is in the process of laying the rest.
The Andhra Pradesh government is already facing criticism for not initiating any action against Gammon India for causing the collapse of a flyover at Panjagutta in Hyderabad, which killed two people in 2007.
Though the issue of inaction against Gammon had faded away, it came back to haunt the government after the Delhi Metro authorities initiated action against the firm following an accident recently in Delhi. The AP labour department has already conducted a field investigation and issued notice to IVRCL under the Workmen Compensation Act, 1923.
The civic body has set up a panel headed by its engineering chief to investigate into the matter. The report would be submitted to the government shortly. “No doubt it is an unfortunate accident. But, we were just contractors there. The designs and plans were given to us by the GHMC. The designs never showed to us the submerged optic fibre cables and water pipelines at the site.
We had to do the whole thing carefully without damaging the underlying lines. The road on which the accident happened always has heavy traffic. As the traffic kept moving, the trenches were witnessing caving-in and we had to repeatedly take the mud out,” IVRCL’s chairman E Sudhir Reddy told DNA.
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