Fatal cement mixer mishap: Metro 9 firm has a chequered track record

J Kumar Infraprojects faces scrutiny for repeated delays and accidents, including a fatal incident at Metro 9, resulting in fines and ongoing investigations.

MUMBAI: Sloppy work, repeated delays, and now an accident that has claimed a life. J Kumar Infraprojects Ltd has a chequered track record and yet it continues to be part of some of Mumbai’s most high-profile infrastructure projects.

Fatal cement mixer mishap: Metro 9 firm has a chequered track record

The latest in a series of lapses by the company is the accident at Kashi-Mira late on Wednesday night, when a cement concrete mixer toppled into a pit in an under-construction Metro 9 site, causing the death of the mixer operator. The company has been contracted to build the 11.38-km stretch of Metro 9, from Dahisar East to Mira-Bhayander.

J Kumar Infraprojects Ltd, which is a part of various mega-infrastructure projects being executed by state agencies as well as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has been fined a collective ₹6.13 crore on seven different occasions, in the last three years alone. Prior to this, in March 2017, it was blacklisted along with six other firms, by the BMC for its alleged involvement in a road scam.

A senior official with the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) said the work done by J Kumar Infraprojects Ltd is shoddy and it has been pulled up more than once. Earlier this year, delays caused by the company were mentioned during a project update and review provided to the chief minister and others ministers, said the official. It doesn’t seem to have made any difference.

In an instance pertaining to the underground Mumbai Metro 3, which is now operational from Aarey to BKC, the company had not cleared dues of a vendor who had installed fire-safety doors at the metro stations. “As a result, the vendor locked all the doors and refused to hand over the keys. During an inspection, the managing director of J Kumar Infraprojects was pulled up,” said sources in MMRCL. This issue was also escalated to senior MMRCL bureaucrats for a resolution.

In September 2021, a 250-metric tonne metal girder, part of the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road Extension project, collapsed at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). Fourteen labourers had a close shave. The company was fined ₹1 crore. Subsequently, when a bridge it had built was opened to traffic, potholes emerged within weeks, and the company attracted another ₹1.2-crore fine.

Shoddy work undertaken by J Kumar Infraprojects also caused MMRCL considerable embarrassment when, soon after the high-profile Metro 3 line was opened a few months ago, rain water poured into the Andheri East metro station, causing some damage as well. The company was penalised ₹1 crore for negligence and another ₹1 crore for deficiency in its work.

In 2024 alone, the company was penalised three times for the slow pace of work on Metro 2B. It ignored repeated reminders to scale up construction work.

J Kumar Infraprojects is also building a 12.82-km for the Metro 9 corridor in Andheri West’s ESIC Nagar, Prem Nagar and Indra Nagar. The company’s slow pace of work had caused delays here too, MMRDA officials said.

Its latest lapse was the accident at Kashi-Mira, which cost the mixer operator his life. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the planning authority for the Metro 9 corridor, has fined J Kumar Infraprojects ₹30 lakh for negligence, and plans to initiate further action based on the final investigation report, said Sanjay Mukherjee, MMRDA’s Commissioner.