JOIN USAnother Metro mishap kills one; Sreedharan blames contractor
The incident took place at around 5:45 am at Ashok Park work site in Punjabi Bagh when the labourer was hit by the beam which was being lifted by a crane.
“The beam was being lifted for staging work at the station when the incident happened. The incident took place only because the chain of the crane used to lift the beam snapped,” Sreedharan told reporters here. The station is part of the under-construction Inderlok-Mundka line.
The semi-skilled worker, identified as Vicky Singh (22), hailed from Uttar Pradesh. Singh was guiding the crane movement and prima facie, it appears that the beam hit him on his shoulder. He was rushed to the nearby Maharaja Agarsen Hospital where he died.
Sreedharan blamed the contractor IDEB-SUCG JV for the accident, saying the crane used by the contractor was new and the slings used were “not certified”. “We have a very rigorous system of checking our lifting substances. In this case, the contractor got a new crane, a new operator and slings. Nobody checked it,” he said adding that the victim “should have also been little careful in guiding the beam.”
The Chief Project Manager in-charge of this line and the Metro safety team are investigating into the incident and an FIR has been lodged, Delhi Metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal said.This is the third accident in the last two weeks at Metro construction sites in the national capital which raises questions over safety at such sites.
On July 12, six persons were killed and 15 others injured when a pillar at an under-construction Metro bridge collapsed in south Delhi’s Zamrudpur, which Sreedharan on Wednesday termed as “inglorious” incident in the Delhi Metro history.
A day after the incident, at least six persons were injured in another accident at the same site during clearance of the debris.
Low accident rate
Sreedharan said Wednesday’s accident took place despite the Metro taking all precautions after the two mishaps. However, he claimed that the accident rate of Delhi Metro was low compared to other Metros across the world. “The accident rate per million workdays is 1.1 for Singapore Metro, while it is 0.4 for Delhi Metro and 0.32 for London Metro.”
Sreedharan said people are anxious about the accidents at Metro sites. “People think that nothing goes wrong in Delhi Metro. We cannot blame the public for their high expectations from us,” he said and expressed confidence that Delhi Metro will get over this “period of crisis” soon.