One worker killed, 8 injured as scaffolding collapses during railway bridge repair work

A 20-year-old daily wage earner was killed and eight others injured after a 20-foot-high scaffolding that they were perched on, to carry out repairs on an elevated railway tracks in east Delhi’s Yamuna Khadar, collapsed late Wednesday

A 20-year-old daily wage earner was killed and eight others injured after a 20-foot-high scaffolding that they were perched on, to carry out repairs on an elevated railway tracks in east Delhi’s Yamuna Khadar, collapsed late Wednesday. Police said the eight injured workers are currently stable.

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The construction work was being undertaken by the Northern Railway. Police have booked the contractor for death due to negligence and efforts are on to trace him.

Police identified the dead man as Mohammad Shahzad, a 20-year-old from Alwar in Rajasthan. Police said the incident was reported around 10pm when the scaffolding that the labourers had erected to reach the railway bridge collapsed while nine workers were perched on it.

“There was some debris lying beneath the scaffolding and the nine men fell on that, injuring themselves. Soon as the police got information, a team reached the spot. Since the spot is 3-5 kilometers inside the wooded area on the banks of the Yamuna, it was tough for the team to take the injured to the hospital. The nine men were rushed to three different hospitals – Jag Pravesh, Guru Teg Bahadur and Lal Bahadur Shastri hospitals. While Shahzad was pronounced dead at the hospital, the others have been admitted and are undergoing treatment,” said a police officer who wished not to be named.

Shahzad’s body has been sent for a postmortem examination and his family members have been informed, police said. Shahzad’s family lives in Alwar and he is survived by his father Khurshid, mother Zarina, a brother and two sisters.

The eight injured were identified as Sonu Nishad, 20, Raghubir Lal, 22, Sohib, 20, Kali Bhawan, 22, Sudhir, 38, Golu, 20, Anis Khan, 20 and Imran, 21. Most of them are from different areas of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Police said the initial probe has suggested that one of the pipes supporting the scaffolding had bent, causing the entire structure to collapse.

Police have found that the repair work at the railway bridge was going on for the past month. Deputy commissioner of police (east) Deepak Yadav said, “We have booked the contractor Ramzan Khan, who was carrying out the repair work for the Northern Railway. Prima facie, it was found that the labourers did not have protective gears. A case has been registered against Khan under IPC (Indian Penal Code) sections 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery), 337 (for causing hurt to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 304A (for causing death due to negligence),” the DCP said.

“Khan is currently not in Delhi. Multiple teams have been formed to trace the contractor and arrest him,” Yadav said.

Deepak Kumar, chief public relations officer of the Northern Railway, did not respond to calls and text messages seeking his comments.