Mumbai: One killed, several injured as portion of under-construction metro viaduct falls on vehicles

One person was killed and several were injured in Mumbai’s Mulund area on Saturday when a portion of an under-construction metro viaduct fell on vehicles on the road underneath.

Three to four persons were injured, PTI quoted an unidentified fire department official as saying. The injured had been taken to hospital, The Times of India reported.

The incident occurred at about 12.20 pm near the Mulund fire station on the Lal Bahadur Shastri road.

Videos posted on social media showed a large concrete block, which appeared to be a parapet segment part of the viaduct, fallen on an auto rickshaw and a car.

It was unclear what had caused the incident.

The viaduct is part of Mumbai Metro line four.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority said that the metro project team was at the site and securing it in coordination with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the disaster management authorities.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed his condolences to the family of the person who had died and ordered an inquiry into the matter.

The Maharashtra government said it will provide assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the family of the person who had died and will bear the cost of treatment for the injured.

Contractor fined, construction halted, says MMRDA

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority urged the public to wait for the findings of the investigation report, assuring that persons found responsible for the incident will be acted against.

The authority said that immediate corrective measures will be implemented to prevent such an incident.

As a precautionary measure, construction in that stretch has been halted, it said, adding that the contractor had been fined Rs 5 crore and the general consultants Rs 1 crore.

The metropolitan region development authority also said that reports and social media posts linking the incident on Saturday to an earlier misleading post questioning the structural stability of the metro line four construction were “inaccurate”.

“The visuals used in that misleading post were from a different pier and a different location,” the development body said. “Also, today’s unfortunate incident involved the falling of a portion of the parapet.”

The incident on Saturday had occurred at pier number P196, it added.

Life has no value under BJP government, says Opposition

Opposition leader Aaditya Thackeray asked whether the government will blacklist the contractor.

“Not likely – may be it’ll show a penalty of a few lakhs and let the contractor get more tenders,” the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader said on social media.

“If you notice, pillars are already painted – before the work was completed,” Thackeray said. “This will cost the state some crores – and then once work is finished, crores again to do them up.”

The former state minister added: “Even today, most infrastructure works have terrible barricading that either lead to traffic jams or vehicles falling into open pits. Life has no value under the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] regime. Falling pieces from metro lines, unsafe modes of transport, cars/bikes falling into open pits with no help for hours.”

“Soon a day will come when countries will issue travel warnings for such things in our country too,” he added.

The Congress said that the incident on Saturday was “proof of the BJP government’s gross negligence and corruption, where there’s no concern for the public and no value for human lives”.

“Across the country, the BJP government’s shoddy infrastructure is claiming people’s lives, but no one steps forward when it comes to taking accountability,” the Opposition party said on social media.