Close shave for two as steel cable falls on road

Two persons had a close shave after a steel cable reportedly came falling down at a Metro construction site near Ambedkar Circle on 90 Feet Road in Ghatkopar East on Saturday midnight. The incident happened when high tensile steel cable, also called HT strand, was being inserted in the ducts on the pillar of the Metro line 4

Mumbai: Two persons had a close shave after a steel cable reportedly came falling down at a Metro construction site near Ambedkar Circle on 90 Feet Road in Ghatkopar East on Saturday midnight.

A steel cable lying on 90 Feet Road in Ghatkopar East. (HT Photo)

The incident happened when high tensile steel cable, also called HT strand, was being inserted in the ducts on the pillar of the Metro line 4 project being executed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

The cable fell close to one Mihir Madia and his friend, both residents of Ghatkopar, when they were parking a car.

Mihir said, “Vehicles were passing from below the pillar. There was no barricading and the cable came down a few minutes after I passed from there. Had someone been there, I do not know what injuries they might have sustained.”

After the incident, Mihir and his friends dialled the police control room 100 and emergency control room 112 but did not receive any response. “We tried the numbers for nearly 30 minutes, but both the numbers were busy. Since nobody responded, we tweeted about the incident,” he added.

When contacted, S V R Srinivas, MMRDA commissioner, he denied the incident and said, “We are very particular about safety. SOPs (Standard operating procedures) were kicked in already and an inquiry is on. All precautions were being taken and will be further reinforced. As per the site report, two people came to the site on a motorbike and argued with the supervisor to open the road for traffic as well as clicked photographs. High tensile steel cable fixing was going on for the second stage stressing last night. Road from both ends was closed for traffic. The lifting of HT strands was being done and that is the reason the strands were on the road.”

On the other hand, Mihir, when HT informed him about the MMRDA denying the incident, said, “It is wrong for the MMRDA to say the road was barricaded and the steel cable did not fall. It fell in front of our eyes. There are vehicles clearly seen moving on the road in the picture uploaded by us. Fortunately, nobody was there. We were parking our car when the incident happened.”

When HT visited the spot, a team of MMRDA officials were seen on the site where the incident took place.