BENGALURU: It’s been more than a week since the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) detected a honeycomb formation in a viaduct beam near Trinity Metro station along the Purple Line. While repair work has been taken up at night since Tuesday, the corporation’s head honchos are working extra hours to ensure the problem in pier 155 is fixed at the earliest. In fact, senior officials, including Ajay Seth , who took charge as BMRCL MD in July, have been camping at the spot past midnight ever since the problem was detected.On December 9, BMRCL detected “a minor aberration in girder alignment” following a honeycomb concreting defect — hollow spaces in precast concrete — in a viaduct beam above pier 155 near Trinity station. “This was an unfortunate incident and should not have happened. But we are now rectifying the issue at the earliest. Our MD has been working round the clock, starting with charting out plans following consultations with experts early in the day to staying back for long hours and overseeing the work. It’s a huge motivation for all of us,” said a senior BMRCL official.“We are taking up minor work after Metro operations stop at 11pm. The major work will be done over the next weekend (December 22 and 23) when services between MG Road and Indirana gar stations will be suspended for one or two days. Services will resume before Christmas and like last year, we will extend the duration of Metro trains on December 31,” the official added. Repair work includes assessing the extent of damage, grouting and curing.Ajay Seth was unavailable for comments.BMRCL sources admitted it was negligence during construction that resulted in the honeycomb formation. In 2012, too, the BMRCL had detected some structural flaw in the distressed viaduct beam, which was later rectified.“We have to see whether the honeycomb formation is due to insufficient compacting or vibrating, inappropriate watercement ratio while mixing of concrete material or if the form work was not done properly. These could lead to problems like reducing the load-bearing capacity of the structure, water and air entering the concrete, reduced durability of concrete, rusting and corrosion of reinforcement and less structural strength,” said an official.BMRCL is now using ultrasonic technology to assess the safety of the structures between Byappanahalli and MG Road (Reach 1, Phase 1). Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd. started work between Byappanahalli and MG Road in 2007 and the stretch became operational in 2011. The defect liability period is only for two years, said officials. Therefore, the company can’t be held accountable for any structural flaw.“We are now checking the structural stability of Reach 1 (Byappanahalli and MG Road). While BMRCL cannot take action against the firm for the viaduct flaw, it could blacklist it from taking up new projects once the detailed report is completed,” the official added.Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd. was unavailable for comments.

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