Guj-based firm handling metro accident site was involved in 2025 mishap

Milan Road Buildtech has been handling construction work on three stretches of this corridor, spanning 19.91 kilometres, since 2022, bypassing the main contractor, Reliance-Astaldi, officials said

Mumbai: The parapet collapse incident at the Metro 4 construction site in Mulund on Saturday which killed one person was not the first accident involving Milan Road Buildtech, the subcontractor infrastructure firm which was executing construction work at the site.

The parapet collapse incident at the Metro 4 construction site in Mulund on Saturday killed one person (Hindustan Times)

Just over a year back, on January 30, 2025, a reinforcement cage for a Metro 4 pier in Chembur had collapsed on a neighbouring building. The accident occurred in Chembur’s Suman Nagar area, when workers were erecting a steel reinforcement cage for constructing pillar 105C using ropes and concrete blocks instead of a crane. While no one was injured in the incident, the building’s security cabin was damaged.

The Gujarat-based Milan Road Buildtech was handling construction work at the Chembur site as well. On Sunday, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) told police that negligence by the firm may have led to Saturday’s incident.

The Metro 4 corridor spans 32.32 kilometres, connecting Wadala with Thane’s Ghodbunder Road via Chembur, Kurla, Ghatkopar and Mulund.

Milan Road Buildtech has been handling construction work on three stretches of this corridor, spanning 19.91 kilometres, since 2022, bypassing the main contractor, Reliance-Astaldi, officials from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) told Hindustan Times.

Reliance-Astaldi, a consortium comprising Reliance Infrastructure and Italy’s Astaldi SPA, was originally awarded the three Metro 4 contracts in March 2018. But delay in civil work on these projects prompted the MMRDA to warn the consortium of terminating the contracts in 2022.

“When relations between MMRDA and Reliance-Asaldi soured, instead of terminating the contract and re-tendering the project, the MMRDA directly engaged the subcontractor,” said an MMRDA official on condition of anonymity.

At one stage, the MMRDA was directly paying Milan Road Buildtech instead of routing payments through Reliance-Astaldi, the official noted, but refused to comment on whether the arrangement was still continuing.

“The contracts with Reliance-Asaldi are still active on paper,” the official noted.

Milan Road Buildtech has also been assigned work to erect a 62.7-metre special steel span at Gandhi Nagar in Kanjurmarg and integrate Metro 4 with Metro 5 at Thane’s Kapurbawdi area, officials said.