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Urban experts say metro collapse was avoidable
BengaluruAfter a metro pillar which was under construction collapsed on a two-wheeler, killing a woman and her two-and-a-half-year-old child in Bengaluru’s Nagawara, urban experts blamed the callousness of the authorities and said the incident could have been avoided with proper supervision
Bengaluru
After a metro pillar which was under construction collapsed on a two-wheeler, killing a woman and her two-and-a-half-year-old child in Bengaluru’s Nagawara, urban experts blamed the callousness of the authorities and said the incident could have been avoided with proper supervision.
MN Srihari, a traffic and transportation engineering expert, said the incident shows the sheer negligence of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) as well as the contractor.
“The construction should be made under proper supervision. The contractor may not be qualified enough or have the expertise to handle such situations including heavy weight materials. At least the BMRCL officials should have supervised. The contractor should have guessed how much it could withstand because it is steel which is quite heavy,” Srihari said.
Kathyayini Chamaraj, activist and executive trustee of CIVIC, an activist group, questioned the officials why precautions were not taken and the issue addressed when residents complained about it.
“I believe some eyewitnesses had already complained that the pillar was leaning. Accidents do happen. But if they had already complained and the engineers were aware and something was likely to happen, they should have barricaded the entire area and diverted the traffic. It shows complete callousness,” Chamaraj said.
Chamaraj also called for transparency at every construction site in the city, so that there is accountability if such incidents occur in the future. “We have been asking for transparency at every construction site, to name the contractor, the mobile number of the person in-charge. Everything should be displayed. Why is that not being done? The BMRCL has put up all those barricades just with the name of the company. But we don’t know whom to contact. At every stage, we need details of the person who can be held accountable,” she said.
“This shows total corruption, callousness, sense of impunity and lack of concern (by government) to what is happening to citizens. They are just concerned about winning elections and making money. Recently, some minister said ‘love jihad’ is more important than roads and drains. How can a person in power speak like that and get away with it? The law minister said that we are just biding time until the elections. They are not even governing or doing any development,” Chamaraj pointed out.
Earlier this month, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Karnataka unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel advised his party workers to focus on fighting “love jihad” instead of “minor issues” like road and sewage problems, triggering a political slugfest in the state where elections are due later this year.
“If these are the comments of people who are in power, I think we need to blame the ciizens who vote for such people to power. But of course, this government has come to power through the back door and is indulging in all sorts of corrupt practices. Next time, people should really think and vote,” Chamaraj said.
“We are carried away by emotional, religious and all kinds of irrelevant issues when we go to vote and we don’t pay attention to the real concerns the people in power need to look into. It is a question of accountability, transparency and abiding by the rule of law,” Chamaraj added.
Srinivas Alavilli, civic activist said the incident shows how road safety is not taken seriously everywhere. “If you look at the accident data last year, over 1 lakh people died on roads in India. This is how bad things are. This is big news but so many such incidents are not even noticed. We should acknowledge that road safety is not given importance at all,” Alavilli said.
Urban expert Ashwin Mahesh took to Twitter and said, “Metro should have routinely made a work zone management plan for all their lines and put in place a way for safe movement of vehicles and pedestrians during the project. But they’ve always ignored this. Metro construction areas in the city look like war zones. The public in the area always has grievances about things that Metro (and BBMP) could easily be doing, but neither has listened. And the Bangalore Minister / CM in charge hasn’t made this a priority either.”
“Such deaths are so avoidable. But only if the quality of our governance improves, for which we need leaders who think about mobility, urban development, people’s conveniences and safety, accountability, etc. Not some engineering job attached to large siphon-able expenditure,” Mahesh wrote on Twitter.
“There should be citizen representatives on the Board of Metro, and a local committee including citizens for the construction of each line. That is also common in Metro projects in democratic countries. We haven’t adopted any of the good practices from the experience of others,” he further said.
While the BMRCL said it is saddened by the unfortunate incident and announced a compensation of ₹20 lakh for the family of the deceased, urban experts and activists called for more accountability instead.
“I think throwing ₹20 lakh to the victims is not enough. Somebody should be held responsible. The contractor should be removed and it should be broadcast in all media so that people are afraid to do such things in the future. I want an action taken report,” Srihari said.
“Definitely stringent action needs to be taken against the people responsible for this accident. More importantly, I hope it also triggers a discussion about safety audits. The reason such incidents happen is because there is a mad rush to complete the infrastructure. This has to be taken at an incident level and at a policy level.
“Another thing is nobody is held accountable. So why would anyone be careful at all?” Alavilli said.
“Metro has quickly announced financial compensation. Useful. But money should not be the only way to settle such instances. And neither should the amounts in such cases be decided by those at fault. Lots of grey areas of governance,” Mahesh said.
