Mishap kills one; Metro chief blames contractor

In the third accident involving Delhi Metro in the last 10 days, a labourer was killed after he was hit by a steel beam being lifted by a crane at its site in west Delhi on Wednesday, even as Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chief E Sreedharan put the blame on the contractor for the fatal mishap.

The incident took place at around 5:45 am at Ashok Park work site in Punjabi Bagh, when the labourer was hit by the beam which was being lifted by the crane. "The beam was being lifted for staging work at the station when the incident happened. The incident took place only because the chain of the crane used to lift the beam snapped," Sreedharan told reporters.

The station is part of the under-construction Inderlok-Mundka line. The worker, identified as Vicky Singh, 22, hailed from Uttar Pradesh. Singh was guiding the crane movement and prima facie, it appears that the beam hit him on the shoulder. He was rushed to the nearby Maharaja Agarsen Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Sreedharan blamed the contractor IDEB-SUCG JV for the accident, saying the crane used by the contractor was new and the slings used were 'not certified'. "We have a very rigorous system of checking our lifting substances. In this case, the contractor got a new crane, a new operator and slings. Nobody checked it," he said, adding that the victim "should have also been a little careful in guiding the

The chief project manager in-charge of this line and the Delhi Metro safety team are investigating the incident and an FIR has been lodged, Delhi Metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal said. This is the third accident in the last two weeks at metro construction sites in the national capital, which raises questions over the safety at such sites.

On July 12, six persons were killed and 15 others injured when a pillar at an under-construction Metro bridge collapsed in South Delhi's Zamrudpur, which Sreedharan today termed as an 'inglorious' incident in Delhi Metro's history. A day after the incident, at least six persons were injured in another accident at the same site during clearance of the debris.

Sreedharan said today's accident took place despite the DMRC taking all precautions after the two mishaps. However, he claimed that the accident rate of Delhi Metro was less compared to other Metros across the world.

"The accident rate per million workdays is 1.1 for Singapore Metro while it is 0.4 for Delhi Metro and 0.32 for London Metro," Sreedharan said.

"People think that nothing goes wrong in Delhi Metro. We cannot blame public for their high expectations from us," he said. He expressed confidence that Delhi Metro will get over this 'period of crisis'.