Video of Dwarka Expressway mishap resurfaces on Twitter, causes panic

A video of an incident that shows four workers having a narrow escape at the Dwarka Expressway worksite, when a girder they were installing fell as the cable from the launcher snapped, went viral on Twitter on Sunday, raising safety concerns among residents

A video of an incident that shows four workers having a narrow escape at the Dwarka Expressway worksite, when a girder they were installing fell as the cable from the launcher snapped, went viral on Twitter on Sunday, raising safety concerns among residents. Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said that the video pertained to an incident that took place about a month ago and they sought a report from the contractor.

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In the video, workers can be seen suspended in the air and swinging, while a steel staircase fell from the top, narrowly missing a worker standing below. Vehicles on the road can be seen moving along the crash site and no safety barricading is visible on the spot.

HT could not verify the authenticity of the video.

Yashesh Yadav, president of Dwarka Expressway homebuyers’ association and a resident of the area, who shared the video on social media, raised concerns over danger to commuters’ lives. “The incident is a recent one and happened near Sector 84. The video clearly shows that there is no safety barricading and the life of workers also hung in the balance. It was only due to luck that nobody was injured or killed. We are writing a letter to the NHAI and PMO, seeking more safety measures and a probe into the incident,” said Yadav.

Nirman Jambulkar, project director, Dwarka Expressway, said, “We follow strict safety practices and corrective steps have been taken to prevent such incidents in the future.”

A few residents alleged that such incidents took place several times but were not captured on camera.

On August 22, 2020, a large portion of concrete had fallen between pillars 10 and 11 of the Sohna Road elevated project, following which the NHAI mandated safety measures, including barricading of the site with grills, before allowing resumption of work.

A senior official of the NHAI, requesting anonymity, said, “We have sought a report from the contractor and asked him to take suitable measures to ensure that such incidents are not repeated. However, this is a large engineering work and things like snapping of a cable or failure of machinery can still happen.”

The official said that the launcher for installing girders for this project has been designed in such a way to ensure minimal damages in case of an accident.