Construction Company with Several Government Clients Threatened with Blacklist Following Bihar Bridge Collapse
The Bihar government is investigating SP Singla Constructions, a business with headquarters in Haryana, after the company’s Rs 1,710 crore four-lane road bridge fell twice in as many months. Sultanganj in the Bhagalpur district and Aguwani Ghat in the Khagaria district were joined by the river Ganga bridge that was still under construction.
The Bihar government, which is under heat over the bridge collapse, gave notice to the construction business on Monday and suspended an executive engineer from the department of road building.
S.P. Singla Construction has received a notification from the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Ltd, which questions why the Bihar government has not blacklisted this business.The corporation may be placed on a government blacklist if it did not reply to the notification within 15 days.
The Executive Engineer, meantime, is accused of neglecting to monitor construction activities and anomalies the construction firm selected throughout the bridge’s development.
According to sources, the business utilized subpar materials for the construction, and the integrity of the pilings is also under doubt, according to news agency IANS.
ACCUSATIONS MADE UPON THE COMPANY
An official from the district administration claims that there were significant anomalies and design flaws throughout the bridge’s planning and construction. According to him, the building business stacked 150 feet to build a pillar on the river’s banks, but the same height was also utilized for the river’s center, when the water is often at its highest point.
Since this bridge did not require the corporation to pile more than 200 feet in the center of the river, two consecutive bridge failures have occurred in the past 14 months.
There are 22 pillars in the center of the river, and given that each pile is 150 feet deep, degradation in each of them was unavoidable.
INTRODUCTION TO SP SINGLA CONSTRUCTIONS
SP Singla Constructions is a family-run business with registered offices in Delhi and Haryana and is led by Sat Paul Singla.
According to a research, the business was established in 1996 and would have a net value of around Rs 869 crore by the end of the financial year (FY) 2022.
According to the business’ website, among other things, it specializes in building deep foundations, long-span bridges, and urban flyovers.
BUSINESS IN DISPUTES PRIOR
According to reports, the ambitious project of the Nitish administration, Lohiya Chakra Path, was being built when three children died when a concrete slab collapsed on them, putting SP Singla Constructions, led by Sat Paul Singla, under scrutiny for the first time in May 2020.
An investigation into the occurrence was launched at the time, but the building business received no punishment thereafter.
According to reports, SP Singla Constructions won many government contracts in Bihar, including the Sherpur-Dighwara bridge, Lohia Path Chakra on Jawaharlal Nehru Road, and a six-lane bridge across the Ganga in Patna from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
A FEW OF SP SINGLA CONSTRUCTIONS’ KEY CLIENTS
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH), the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the Jammu and Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation Ltd (JKPCC), the Border Roads Organization (BRO), and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) are a few of SP Singla Constructions’ other notable clients in addition to Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Ltd (BRPNNL).
Its clientele allegedly include the Indian Railways, GSIDC, Goa, Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation, Kochi Metro Rail Ltd, PWDs from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, and Assam, among others.
