Five persons were arrested after the parapet segment of an under-construction metro bridge in Mumbai collapsed, killing one person and leaving three others injured on Saturday, reported The Times of India.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority also imposed Rs 5 crore penalty on the contractor, Reliance Infrastructure-Astaldi, and its sub-contractor, Milan Road Buildtech LLP, according to Hindustan Times.
A fine of Rs 1 crore was imposed on a consultant linked to the project – a consortium of DB Engineering & Consulting, Hill International Inc and Louis Berger Consulting Private Limited.
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, on an auto rickshaw and a car.
The person who died was identified as Ramdhani Yadav, 46. He was sitting in the back of the auto rickshaw.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed his condolences to the family of Yadav 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.
Mulund MLA Mihir Kotecha alleged that workers had installed the parapet segment without supervision, reported The Times of India. He added that 54 violations by the contractor were earlier flagged, but ignored.
On the other hand, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority 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”.
Meanwhile, 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.
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.”
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”.
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