Cracks found in two more Metro pillars

Barely a fortnight after a cantilever pier gave away at the Metro construction site in Zamrudpur, south Delhi killing six people on July 12, two more piers on the stretch leading to Noida have been found with a crack in each of them.

Barely a fortnight after a cantilever pier gave away at the Metro construction site in Zamrudpur, south Delhi killing six people on July 12, two more piers on the stretch leading to Noida have been found with a crack in each of them.

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The construction of this corridor — from Yamuna Bank in east Delhi to Noida’s Sector 32 — is almost complete. Trial runs were to begin in the first week of August. It was scheduled to start functioning commercially from end August.

The cracks would have gone unnoticed but for the independent consultants, Shirish Patel and Associates, the DMRC appointed after the Zamrudpur incident to review all its cantilever piers.

As soon as the consultants discovered the cracks on Saturday, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) managing director E. Sreedharan inspected the piers and ordered a probe into how serious they were and why they had occurred.

Gammon India is the civil contractor for this stretch of the Metro. It was also building the line where the Zamrudpur accident occurred.

Gammon officials could not be contacted for their reaction to the new cracks despite repeated attempts.

Both piers which have developed cracks are located close to each other in Noida’s Sector 2.

“The cracks are hairline,” said Anuj Dayal, DMRC spokesperson. “There does not seem to be any problem with the structure of the piers. But after the Zamrudpur incident, we have to be very sure.”