One killed, three injured as part of under-construction Metro pillar collapses in Mumbai

One person was killed and three others were injured after a parapet wall along the Metro route collapsed over auto-rickshaw and a car in the Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg in the Mulund area of Mumbai on Saturday - a incident that sparked off a major political issue in Maharashtra.

The incident took place at 12:20 pm near Johnson & Johnson Company in Mulund West.

Top officials of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) rushed to the spot hearing about the incident.

“A portion of parapet wall, around 6 feet x four feet, of the elevated metro train bridge had fallen on the running auto rickshaw (MH-04-MP-1434) and private SKODA car (WB-04-AS-1652),” Disaster Management Unit officials said.

The deceased was identified as Ramdhan Yadav.

The three injured persons, who were injured and admitted to the Upasani Hospital, were identified as Rajkumar Indrajeet Yadav (45), Mahendra Pratap Yadav (52) and Deepa Ruhiya (40).

Among the injured, Rajkumar Yadav’s condition is critical.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who is the state’s Urban Development Minister, reviewed the situation.

Fadnavis announced a financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased while the cost of treatment for the injured will be borne by the state government.

“Prima facie, it is clear that it is a case of negligence,” Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde said.

“This is really sad. MMRDA and the concerned contractor have shown negligence. Due to this, a person died, and three others were injured. This cannot be tolerated at all. The parapet wall/girder was installed here last night. I think the related safety rules should have been followed here. The site engineer of MMRDA, the concerned contractor and the consultant were responsible for this,” said Tawde, who is from Shiv Sena.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray slammed the government over the incident.

“A huge piece from the under-construction Metro 4 line fell on a rickshaw and a car today. Similarly a wall had collapsed and the then newly inaugurated Metro line 3 had flooded with rain water last year. Will the regime blacklist this contractor? Not likely- maybe it’ll show a penalty of a few lakhs and let the contractor get more tenders. If you notice, pillars are already painted- before the work was completed. This will cost the State some crores- and then once work is finished, crores again to do them up. Even today, most infrastructure works have terrible barricading that either leads to traffic jams or vehicles falling into open pits. Life has no value under the bjp regime. Falling pieces from metro lines, unsafe modes of transport, cars/ bikes falling into open pits with no help for hours,” said Aaditya.

Police register FIR

A case under section 105, 110, 324(5), 3(5) of the BNS has been registered at the Mulund police station.

Inquiry

MMRDA has constituted a high-level inquiry committee headed by Basavraj M. Bhadragond, Director (Projects), MMRDA, to investigate the precise cause of the parapet segment fall. “The committee will examine construction methodology, quality control systems, supervision mechanisms, contractors’ compliance with that, and third-party oversight processes. A detailed report has been sought on priority,” officials said.

Penalty on contractor, consultant

Meanwhile, the MMRDA has decided to impose financial penalties on the concerned entities associated with supervision and execution of the work. These include contractor-RAJV Milan infra – (Rs 5 crore), and general consultants to the Consortium of DB Engineering & Consulting, Hill International Inc and Louis Berger Consulting Private Ltd – (Rs 1 crore).