Afcons submit own survey report on damages to Vilimale’ reef to EPA

India’s Afcons Infrastructure undertaking the construction of the Thilamale’ Bridge has submitted its own survey report of damages to Vilimale’ reef resulting from the wrecking of a self-elevating platform used in the construction of the bridge to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Sun has learned that discussions on the report are presently underway, whereas EPA disagrees with the findings of the report.

Based on the information received, the main reason behind EPA’s disagreement with the report is Afcons having commenced the survey days after the actual wrecking. As per Afcons’ report, the platform wrecking had only caused little damage to the reef.

Afcons requested to conduct their own survey, as the company was discontent regarding the severity of damages reported by EPA following their survey.

In an earlier statement to Sun, EPA’s Director General Ibrahim Naeem said that Afcons was provided the opportunity to partake in EPA’s survey, however, an insurer had taken part in the survey, in place of the company.

“They said they will participate, however, at the last minute it was an insurer,” he had said.

Naeem detailed that Afcons had requested to carry out their own survey, in the timeframe granted for them to respond to EPA’s report.

The self-elevating platform used by India’s Afcons Infrastructure for the construction of the Thilamale’ Bridge wrecked on the Vilimale’ reef on August 16. Three workers were injured in the incident.

It was refloated after nearly two weeks, on August 27. Meanwhile, the cleaning of the debris from the area was completed on September 4. Photos shared by EPA in September following their survey showed the incident resulted in four large craters on the reef.