In Punjab govt’s line of fire for flooding, firm says checking barrage health was never its mandate

However, the company, Level9 Biz Private Limited, responded, “We were never asked to check the health of the barrage structure.”

The owner, Yashbir Singh, submitted his reply on August 31. It states: “It was not my mandate or scope of work to check the strength of the barrage’s gates.” The scope of work allotted: “Design flood studies have to be carried out to compute the 100-year return period flood and probable maximum flood for the existing Madhopur barrage”.

The government’s notice stated: “After conducting the requisite surveys and site visits, your agency submitted a flood routing report dated December 26, 2024, wherein it was stated that a discharge of 6.25 lakh cusecs could be safely passed through Madhopur headworks.”

However, the company replied, “As per the scope of the work, only estimate for design flood review (in) relation to the original design flood of Madhopur barrage was to be carried out after collection of original hydrological data/studies, G&D (gauging and discharge) data, salient features, basic barrage data/information and review of the same.”

The company

A look at the company’s website shows that works undertaken by them include the construction of a dining hall in Dharamshala; an angling hut in Bharmour; a community centre-cum-commercial complex in Bharmour; the HIMUDA circle office and HIMUDA transit accommodation in Dharamshala; and the hostel of NIT, Srinagar. Ongoing ones include EWS housing projects in Solan and Dharamshala, and an anganwadi centre in Rajasthan.

The company also provides a range of services, including open-air gyms, EPS construction, civil construction, PUF construction, sports complexes, waste-to-value projects, swimming pools, urban parks, children’s parks, and underground dustbins. It also offers “project management” as one of its services and says, “We control the time, cost and quality of projects from residential, commercial and industrial buildings”.

Its website does not mention expertise/project undertaken related to water resources/barrage/dam design.

The Punjab Water Resources Department awarded it the contract of Rs 14.1 lakh on April 13, 2024.

According to records, the firm was started by Yashbir, Jagjeet Singh and Manjeet Singh on January 28, 2014. Its office is in Mohali.

“I have technical expertise and core competence, and work independently. The other directors (Jagjeet and Manjeet) are silent partners. I launched this startup company and did not have adequate funds, for which I involved the other partners,” said Yashbir, who has corporate experience of nine years.

An IIM Indore alumnus with a B.E. (Civil) from PEC, Chandigarh, Yashbir said, “I have earlier worked with WAPCOS (a central public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Jal Shakti), PWD department, etc. We have earlier done a few different projects for BBMB, too. Our core competence is civil engineering, which encompasses water resources studies. Retired government chief engineers are on my panel.”

Addressing a press conference on August 30, Goyal claimed that “the company had submitted a detailed report in December 2024, stating that the gates would not suffer any damage even if 6.52 lakh cusecs of water was released”. Goyal did not respond to calls and messages from The Indian Express.

In response, Yashbir said, “It was not my mandate or scope of work to check the strength of the barrage’s gates. I was never assigned any such task. My scope of work, according to the government’s tender, was merely to do the estimate for the design flood review of Madhopur headworks. The project report that I submitted on December 12, 2024, did not include health/safety assessment of the structure; emergency preparedness; structural performance under extreme events; risk analysis or mitigation strategies; and dam/barrage safety implementation measures. Over half a dozen top officials of the government’s water resources department approved it and awarded me a completion certificate, saying that my work is ‘good and satisfactory’, and I was paid the contract amount. The defect liability period also lapsed on August 9, 2025.”

“I was not assigned the duty/work to check the strength/health of the structure. It (structural strength assessment) is an independent work which cannot be done in a Rs 13-14 lakh contract,” he said.

Asked if he agrees that the company’s scope of work did not involve checking the structure’s strength, Chief Engineer (Design) Vijay Kumar Garg said, “I am getting their report and reply examined on whether they (company) had any role in the barrage’s structure. The roles were not clearly defined. We have received the company’s reply and have sent it to our dam safety wing for detailed analysis. Once I receive the report, I shall inform the government accordingly.”