Lapses led to Metro mishap

NEW DELHI: In a shocking disclosure about the reasons for the Vikas Marg accident on October 19 in which two people were killed and 12 injured,
the DMRC said on Tuesday that there had been glaring lapses on the part of the contractor, Afcons Infrastructure.

According to the report submitted by a high-level technical committee constituted by DMRC to inquire into the collapse one of the four tubular columns holding up the launcher girder had only four pins instead of the mandatory 10 to hold the column together.

The tubular column consists of two tubes. To aggravate matters, it was found that the holes of the outer tube which should match the holes of the inner tube for inserting the pins had been enlarged by gas-cutting creating a "load differential''.

Describing the incident in which an elevated Metro bridge along with a launcher girder had come crashing down as the `blackest day' for Metro, managing director DMRC E Sreedharan said on Tuesday that work culture in Metro had taken a dip. He added that DMRC took full moral responsibility for the incident.

However, the other four accidents this year were termed as `freak accidents'. Sreedharan said they were not a result of negligence by DMRC or the contractor.

"We will serve the contractor with a showcause notice within the next two days for blacklisting it. We have already removed the assistant engineer and junior engineer who were responsible for the work for failure to ensure that the contractor took all precautions at the work site. We have also slapped a fine of Rs 10 lakh on the contractor,'' he said.

However, the contractor will continue with the work being carried out by it from the Yamuna bank to Anand Vihar where 80% work has been completed, Model Town to Jehangirpuri where the work is almost complete and along the airport line where about 40% of the work was over.

Denying that the accident was a result of DMRC trying to hurry with the work to meet deadlines, Sreedharan said DMRC ensured that international standards of safety were adhered to by having a three-level check at all its work sites. "We were four months ahead of schedule on the Vikas Marg stretch. There was no question of trying to overlook safety to meet our deadline,'' he said.

DMRC said that it was holding meetings with its engineers to ensure that the work culture for which it has been known should be revived. From now, one JE will be responsible for one launch girder while an AE will be made responsible for two.

The DMRC will also be holding a meeting with its contractors next week. As a result of this accident, Metro has suffered a setback of three months with regard to construction work on Vikas Marg besides incurring a loss of Rs 3 crore. Said Sreedharan: "The launching girder can lift 180 tonnes but due to problems with a tubular column it was not able to lift 160 tonnes. The damage could have been much worse but fortunately it was a Sunday.''

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com