Govt. told to consult expert on possibility of conducting load test
A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday ordered that the Palarivattom flyover should not be demolished without its permission.
The Bench comprising Justice A.M. Shaffique and Justice T.V. Anilkumar also directed the State government to consider whether a load test should be conducted through a competent agency such as IIT-Kanpur or IIT-Mumbai, or any agency having specialisation in bridge engineering to find out the strength of the structure.
The directives were issued on two public interest writ petitions seeking to restrain the State government from demolishing and reconstructing the Palarivattom flyover without conducting load test to assess its structural stability, in terms of the relevant codes as prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
The petitioners, the contractor and KITCO, submitted that the efficiency of the bridge could be assessed only after a load test as per the provisions of the contract.
Though the government had taken the decision based on certain reports, no load test was conducted. In fact, the load test was the basic test to find out the strength of the bridge and take a call on whether it should be dismantled or repaired.
Though IIT-Madras, after inspecting the bridge, had recommended that further test be conducted, nothing had been done by the government. The State government had taken the decision to reconstruct the flyover on the recommendation of metroman E. Sreedharan, they contended.
Counsel for KITCO submitted that the report of Mr. Sreedharan could not be treated as final as there were several infirmities in the report.
The court also asked the State government to file a statement within two weeks as to whether it contemplated to get a load test conducted before proceeding further in the matter.
Rekha Nair 
Nisham Ismail