Cuttack: Orissa High Court has sought a reply from the works department on allegations of building inferior quality pillars of the railway overbridge at Kudari near Jatni in Khurda district.

A PIL was filed seeking the court's intervention to assess the quality of the pillars that had been constructed allegedly by flouting prescribed specifications.

Three residents of Kudari - Bhaskar Bhujbal, 77, Bansidhar Mohanty, 65, and Harihar Behera, 61, had filed the petition seeking direction "to break open one of the five piers (pillars) of the under-construction overbridge to ascertain the real position and quality of construction done by the contractor."

The works department had assigned the contract for constructing the railway overbridge to Panda Infraprojects (lndia) Pvt Ltd. The PIL was taken up on Thursday.

"After a preliminary hearing, the division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi posted the matter six weeks later for hearing along with the reply of the state government," petitioner counsel Shivshankar Mohanty said on Friday.

"The court issued notice to the chief engineer and secretary of the works department to file a response by then," Mohanty said, adding that no notice had been issued to Panda Infraprojects (lndia) Pvt Ltd.

He said: "The petitioners have volunteered to bear the expenses for breaking open one of the five pillars... as they have not been built strong enough."

According to the petition, to ensure the designed strength, the agreement prescribed digging of up to 60ft deep from the ground level of each pillar.

"But in the case of the five pillars, the piling has been done only 20ft deep from the ground level with the insertion of substandard iron rods. The remaining 40ft has been filled up with substandard concrete material," the petition said. "Such deviation and in the piling work has been carried out by the contractor firm in connivance and active support of the concerned officials of the works department's roads & building (Khurda division)."