A testing lab for bangalore's civic works that does no tests

A testing lab for bangalore's civic works that does no tests

BBMP's quality control lab has machines to spot bad construction but it's lying unused since February

Rohith BR & A Veeramani. Bangalore



Almost all construction job in the city, from road-laying to compound wall construction, has to be tested and cleared by BBMP's quality control laboratory near Hudson Circle. The lab is supposed to test and certify the quality of material being used to construct walls, including the one at Bellary Road that killed 17-year-old Sanjana Singh.
But here's the best part: The lab has been defunct since February with equipment worth Rs9.32 lakh, purchased four months ago, lying unused and still packed. The lab has all the right equipment to conduct tests that can spot weak construction and substandard material.
When DNA visited this lab located at the Palike headquarters on Tuesday, the unused and untouched machines proved the fact that no such tests are conducted. The room in which these machines were kept was full of cobwebs and dust.
Even the tanker built there to store water, for material testing, was empty.
BBMP's quality control team, comprising two executive engineers and two assistant executive engineers, is forced to depend on private labs to test the quality of construction material like concrete, sand and bitumen