Metro track reinforcement tilts

Mumbai: A thirteen-metre-long reinforcement on the Metro track tilted dangerously at Shankarwadi near Jogeshwari Service Road on Saturday morning. Luckily, the iron rods did not fall on the road and nobody was injured in the incident.

According to Pimenta Godfrey of the Watchdog Foundation, beam erection work for Metro 7 is going on and a lot of iron rods and other materials have been placed there, but the whole thing came crashing down around 11am. “Luckily, nobody was injured in the accident but now the question arises of the safety of this work, which is going on,” he said, adding, “A few years ago too a part of the under-construction bridge of other Metro rail had collapsed in Andheri and the commissioner of safety had ordered a probe into the incident.”

Mr Pimenta said, “Here too, the entire safety aspect has to be seen, because now this girder and other things are being placed and cars are passing beside the barricades so there is a big question of safety. There seems to be some lapse on the part of the engineers.” He added that he would be writing on this issue to the commissioner of safety of railways and to the Metro authorities also.

Simplex Infrastructures, the firm responsible for executing the work, stated, “At Simplex, we follow all safety measures and precautions. This process was undertaken within the safety barricaded area, leaving no scope for any untoward incident to happen.”

MMRDA additional commissioner Pravin Darade while speaking to The Asian Age said the incident occurred because the reinforcement for a pier was erected without any support. “This long reinforcement became bit too heavy and hence got tilted but it didn’t come on road and was within the barricades. Now it would be removed and would be erected properly once again,” he said.