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Maha-Metro accidents in Pune: Fourth incident in two years raises safety concerns
Pillar damaged the bridge near the College of Engineering in Pune (CoEP) and was being built for the metro reach three segments between Ramwadi and civil court
A major tragedy was averted after a reinforcement cage of steel weighing over one tonne fell on the pedestrian section of Sangam bridge on Saturday morning. No injuries were reported in the incident, said Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited officials. This is the fourth such incident reported in two years.
In a similar incident in the past, a metro contract labourer lost his life after being run over by a crane in December 2019.
A piling rig came crashing down near Nashik phata in January 2019 and in May 2018, a reinforcement cage was bent near Lakdi bridge.
Although metro officials do promise action against contractors following such incidents, such questions over the safety of the project still remain.
On Saturday, the reinforcement cage which was brought in to build the second half of the pillar for the metro caused almost seven feet of the pedestrian portion of the bridge to come crashing down due to the damage. The contractor has been penalised for the incident as per the contract confirmed officials and that the bridge will be repaired by the Maha-Metro.
Hemant Sonawane, general manager of public relations, Maha-Metro, said, “The reinforcement cage is used to build pillars. Half of the pillar was already built and as the pillar is too tall, about 25 metres, on the river bed, for the second half we need the cage to fill in concrete and steel bars. There was some mismanagement by the labourers as the rope to hold the reinforcement was untied first even before the mould could be secured on the pillar which is why it fell.”
“Fortunately no one was injured and the contractor has been penalised for the same,” said Sonawane.
Sonawane said, “We do take action against the contractor as per the contractual provision and also ask to change the supervisor. We have multiple safety inspectors from our end and also the contractor’s side. We take utmost care to avoid such incidents, but with a project of such a large scale and dimension, sometimes unavoidable tragedies do take place.”
Vivek Velankar, activist, said, “Safety cannot be compromised at any cost. The local civic body and police station do not implement the safety norms just because it is a central government project. The metro officials have no control over the contractor or their labourers.”
The pillar damaged the bridge near the College of Engineering in Pune (CoEP) and was being built for the metro reach three segments between Ramwadi and civil court. Metro officials also said that only the top portion of the pillar was damaged and not the foundation.
