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Railways set up committee to look into hoarding collapse incident; report within 15 days
A case was registered against contractor Mallikarjun Malkapure, sub-contractor Jeevan Mandre and a worker.
Assuring action against those responsible for the collapse of the 40-foot tall hoarding, the Central Railway Pune division has appointed a four-member committee to probe the entire incident. Four persons were killed while seven others were injured when metal hoarding frame, installed on land belonging to the Pune railway department, collapsed when it was being cut at Shahir Amar Shaikh chowk on Friday afternoon in Junna Bazaar.
Sunil Udasi, chief PRO of Railways, said, “A high-level committee has already been appointed by the department to probe the unfortunate incident which took place on Friday. While we have taken the moral responsibility of the accident, we have also directed the committee to consider all the minute details of the accident so that the true culprit responsible for the incident can be punished.”
Following the incident, Railways had blamed the private agency carrying out the work on the site responsible for the mishap. The statement released by the railway department said, “The agency which was awarded the work of removing the hoarding is completely responsible for the unfortunate incident. We will conduct a high-level inquiry about the entire incident.”
A case was registered against contractor Mallikarjun Malkapure, sub-contractor Jeevan Mandre and a worker.
While a senior Railways’ officer, requesting anonymity, admitted the fact that the accident was a result of a human error, Udasi said, “Nothing can be particularly claimed before the report of the committee comes out. However, we have zero tolerance when it comes to safety and all those responsible for the accident will be punished.”
Udasi said, “The company which had been given the contract of advertising on the hoarding which fell down had not submitted the structural audit report to the railway department. Despite repeated requests to them, we did not receive any audit report from the advertising company.”
“Consequently, we decided to dismantle a total of six hoardings that belonged to the agency. While four hoardings were dismantled without any problem, the unfortunate accident happened while removing the fifth hoarding,” he added.
Meanwhile, a hoarding at the RTO chowk in the city, which also belongs to the railway department, has been identified as risky by the Pune municipal corporation (PMC).
Vijay Dahibhate, chief of sky sign department in PMC, said, “The hoardings which are there in front of the main gate of the RTO office are also violating norms and need to be removed. Despite reminders from the PMC, the railway department has not acted on it and have not allowed us to take action too.”
However, the railway officials have refuted all the claims made by the PMC saying that the hoardings near the RTO chowk are certified as safe by their engineers during the structural audit carried out by the railway department.
