Chennai Metro rail orders probe into girder collapse

Chennai:

Chennai Metro Rail has ordered an enquiry to find out the root cause for the accident in Metro rail site near St Thomas Mount in which a worker was killed and three injured when a launching girder came crashing down.

Speaking to Express after visiting the accident site, Chennai Metro Rail General Manager (construction) V Somasundaram said, “We will find out the root cause and act accordingly and ensure such things do not get repeated.”

He said it is too early to jump into conclusions. “Let the General Consultants enquire into all possible angles,” said Somasundaram.

Interestingly, this is second such fatal incident in the last five months. In the earlier incident on August 2012 near Pachayappa’s college, a migrant labourer was killed and 6 others were injured when the arm of a crane that was holding 25 tonne steel rods snapped and fell.

To a query on what steps the metro rail is taking in order to stop such incidents, Somasundaram said that, “We are doing whatever is humanly possible. We will now address this issue by instruction and inspection. An inspection will be carried out to find whether all the instructions are carried out and validated. And lapses will be taken up.”

The senior metro rail official said that the biggest challenge is to remove the launching girder, which is used to place concrete piles between the two pillars,  from the accident site without affecting the structures as well as residents.

He said it would take nearly a week and General Consultants will be conducting a study on how they will remove the girder technically.

It is likely that work on the stretch especially launching of concrete piles between the pillars would be affected following the incident.

Meanwhile, a cheque of Rs nine lakh has been submitted to the labour department as compensation to the family of the deceased. “We are a world class company and would ensure the workers are compensated adequately,” he said.

Earlier, workers at the site said that the girder collapsed after it was moved to the next pillar to launch a segment. Mithlesh, a worker at the site, said all deceased and injured are from the same village in Bihar. He said the deceased worker Dimple shah is married and has a child. “The family has been informed,” he said. The construction work in the site was being carried out by L&T. This is also the second such incident on the elevated stretch. In an earlier incident, a 50 ton metro rail scaffolding collapsed on the busy 100 feet road between Koyambedu-Vadapalani stretch bringing traffic to a standstill. Interestingly, no one was injured in the incident.