Metro rail worker dies as crane collapses in Saidapet Metro station

 

Work at Saidapet metro site frozen; to resume only after safety clearance

Chennai:

A metro rail construction worker died and another injured  when a crane operating in the early hours of Saturday lost the gravity and collapsed at the Saidapet metro rail station.

The deceased has been identified as Ranjith Biswal from Orissa. The injured Tira Nayak also from Orissa is undergoing treatment at Government Hospital while Ranjith Biswal’s body has been taken to Royapettah Hospital.

Metro rail officials and workers at the site  said that the incident happened after the night shift just ended and the first shift took over the charge.

The operator operating the crane loaded a material when the crane swung and lost gravity. The impact was such that the two workers – Ranjith and Tira—were hit by the edge of the boom, 80 metres away from the crane.

“The workers were caught unaware. The boom edge hit Ranjith on the head and he died immediately while Tira suffered a fracture in the leg.

A Metro rail official at the site said that it is an accident but an unfortunate one. The work in the site, which is being undertaken by Gammon India Limited, has been stopped immediately and it would resume only after General Consultants give safety clearance.

A safety audit is being undertaken at the site, a metro rail official said. Interestingly, when the incident happened, work at the underground station was not going on.

Interestingly, January has been an unlucky month for Chennai Metro Rail last year also  when a metro rail worker was killed in a girder crashed between Alandur and St Thomas Mount Stations.  

“We will be compensating the worker adequately,” an official said. The family of Biswal has been intimated and other formalities will be conducted once the post mortem all all police formalities gets completed.

Interestingly, this incident also comes in the wake of safety audit of cranes being conducted after the accident near Pachayappa’s College resulted in the death of a migrant labourer and injuries to six others.  A Gammon official said that the crane complied to all the safety norms