Metallic pillar collapses at Mumbai Metro site

A metallic structure supporting main concrete pillars at Mumbai's under-construction Metro line, in the north-western suburb of Sakinaka, collapsed on Monday night.

No one was injured in the incident, which took place at 11.30 pm on Monday night, when work was going on at the construction site of the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar metro rail.

The incident comes two days after six people were killed when an under-construction pillar collapsed at a Delhi Metro site.

"The metallic pillar erected to support main pillars of the metro route came down last night. Nobody was injured in the incident," said Amitabh Gupta, additional police commissioner.

K P Maheshwari, director of Mumbai Metro One, the consortium building the metro line, said, "It was a temporary scaffolding which we had put up during the construction and it fell due to the strong wind. We removed the debris in two to three hours. Work has resumed at the site."

"We are going to conduct an inquiry into why the structure collapsed and come out with a report," he added.

Dilip Kawatkar, spokesperson of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the monitoring agency of the metro rail work being undertaken by Reliance Ltd, said that it was not a major incident.

"The workers have just begun to erect the pillar and the work was in its initial stages. We will investigate to establish the cause of the collapse," Kawatkar said.

Mumbai has witnessed heavy rains accompanied by strong winds since Monday night. Water logging was reported in many areas across the city and rail, road and air traffic has been disrupted.