Firm behind Kol flyover had been on Railways' watchlist

Infrastructure firm IVRCL which held the contract to construct the flyover that collapsed in Kolkata on 31 March had been banned by the Railways for "non-performance".

According to SC Agnihotri, chief managing director, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), "Because of non-performance, we had terminated a few of their contracts."

IVRCL apparently had delayed their railways projects to such levels that it led to the serving of notices, the levying or fines and ultimately the termination of contracts, says The Indian Express.

IVRCL had also had a tunnelling contract with railway construction giant, IRCON, terminated. A senior IRCON official said: "They got the contract based on the strength and reputation of the foreign firm they had tied up with but when the work was being executed, we saw that only IVRCL was carrying it out. We were very disappointed with the work and terminated the contract."

However, after the flyover collapsed on Thursday, killing more than 20 people and trapping about 150, IVRCL officials said it was an "act of God".

"I am sure it was not inferior-quality material or negligence in following safety procedures that led to the accident. This was the 60th segment of the flyover. before that, 59 segments were constructed and all of them are fine. Something happened with this segment. We are trying to find out what happened and we will cooperate with any investigation,'' said AGK Murthy, director of operations, IVRCL.