Ban for Gammon?

New Delhi: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s Action Taken Report was submitted to Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy on Tuesday.

The report, by a four-member expert committee probing Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's worst accident on July 12, which killed six people, says construction giant Gammon India faces a two-year ban from construction for two years and a show cause notice has been slapped on them.

If Gammon fails to reply to the notice, it will be blacklisted.

The report also says three DMRC engineers have been suspended and the design consultants have been blacklisted for five years.

Structural design engineers Tandon Constructions have been barred for three years.

DMRC says independent consultants will be hired for further construction.

“Design consultants will be blacklisted for five years, Tandon Consultants, the structural consultants to be debarred for two years. M/s Gammon India will be given a show cause to be blacklisted for two years,” Reddy said in Parliament.

Gammon has refused to comment, says will react only after going through the DMRC report.

The metro rail deadline remains 2010.

The committee headed by A K Nagpal of the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi probed the collapse of an under-construction beam meant to support the elevated rail track connecting central Delhi to Badarpur in the south of the Capital.

In the last 10 years, more than 69 people have lost their lives in various metro accidents but none of them have received compensation packages as per the Workmans' Compensation Act of 1923.

The DMRC set up a labour welfare fund in 2003, but lawyers say it seems that this was done to evade civil liability.

Till date, the DMRC has been lauded for completing most projects before stipulated deadlines but statistics show that it needs to do a lot more to uphold the safety and concerns of its employees.