AGRA: Less than six months before the stretch of the Agra-Lucknow expressway caved in on Wednesday, Agra-based PNC Infratech Limited which constructed the service road, was awarded a

of Rs 58 crore by the Yogi Adityanath government in

for completing the project early. The firm, owned by the brother of Agra’s mayor

(of the BJP), had constructed the 56.134km stretch of the expressway from

Agra

to

. On Wednesday, a SUV had plunged 20ft and got stuck in the middle of a 50-ft-deep sinkhole after the service road of the expressway caved in. Luckily, the four occupants of the vehicle had a miraculous escape.

The revenue report of PNC Infratech Limited for the fourth quarter of financial year 2017-18 mentions that the company received Rs 58 crore as bonus from the UP government for early completion of a section of the 302km expressway. As a matter of policy, several state governments award firms for early completion of the projects.

Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority CEO Awanish Kumar Awasthi told TOI, “The central government agency, RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Services), has been called to conduct a thorough investigation and submit its report within 12 days to ascertain the cause of damages on the Agra-Firozabad stretch of the expressway. PNC Infratech had constructed the stretch and is now bound to restore it at its own cost.”

Last year, soon after taking over the reins of the state, CM Yogi Adityanath had ordered a probe into the quality of construction of the Agra-Lucknow expressway, and RITES was tasked with the investigation. After thorough examination of the civil works and economic parameters, the state government was told that the construction of the expressway was done as per the norms.

Awasthi said, “The cave-in occurred due to heavy rainfall and accumulation of the water on the service lane. We have called the third party, RITES, to provide reason for water-logging on and along the expressway. The main focus of the investigation will be to check whether there is a design problem or not.”

When contacted, Agra mayor Naveen Jain said, “I do not hold any responsibility in PNC Infratech. But as a member of the family, I can say that quality construction work was done on the project. Even a third-party probe by RITES had earlier found no fault with it.”

Jain said that the stretch developed by PNC Infratech was handed over to the department earlier this year. He, however, alleged that maintenance work was not done as per protocol after this.

“The cave-in occurred due to water-logging. The problem should be solved in a planned way. On the directives of the state authorities, repair work started on Thursday,” Jain said.

PNC Infratech, which claims expertise in construction of highways, airport runways and bridges, is currently working on 35 projects in 12 states, including UP, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra.