Criminal proceedings are to be launched against officials and contractors who oversaw the renovation of a suspension bridge in Ayutthaya prior to its deadly collapse in April, after the Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) yesterday confirmed an initial finding that the collapse resulted from the use of substandard cables.
Five people were killed and many were injured in the collapse.
The seven accused include five officials of Tha Lung municipality, two of whom were responsible for hiring the contractors and two of whom acted as project foremen. |The other two accused are representatives of local commu-nities that jointly contracted to conduct the renovation several years ago.
The conclusions published yesterday by the EIT, which is under the patronage of His Majesty the King, are in line with an earlier finding by the provincial Public Works Office that the slings used, including the main cables, were of lower quality than required in the project’s specifications.
In its statement, read out yesterday in Ayutthaya by the chief of the Disaster Mitigation and Rescue Operations Office, the EIT said most of the cables selected at the recommendation of the seven accused did not meet the required quality standards, while a number of construction methods used did not meet the project’s specifications.
The provincial authorities will coordinate with municipal officials in Tha Rua district to identify the five officials and take criminal action against them, while police would be responsible for bringing the two contractors to justice.
