24 hrs later, cause of mishap unknown

A day after three labourers were killed and six gravely injured when a giant concrete girder collapsed on them at the site of the Sahar elevated road project in Andheri the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority commissioner was summoned by the chief minister to discuss what had caused the fatal fiasco A 35m concrete girder collapsed around 1130 pm on Wednesday while it was being lifted by a crane at a segment of the Sahar elevated Road near the Mumbai International airport PicSatyajit Desai An MMRDA official said on the condition of anonymity ldquoMetropolitan Commissioner Rahul Asthana on Thursday met Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and explained to him that the MMRDA does not have to do anything with the accident that took place last night The location where the accident occurred falls under the jurisdiction of Mumbai International Airport Limited MIAL However while discussing the issue the chief minister instructed that more precautions should be taken at project sites to avoid such incidentsrdquo The road is being jointly constructed by the MMRDA and the MIAL Right after the accident occurred around 1130 pm on Wednesday the MMRDA washed its hands of the mishap claiming that it took place on the stretch which falls under MIALrsquos jurisdiction It should be noted that a day after the accident MIAL has still not confirmed the reason for the accident Sources said that the crane being used to lift a concrete girder malfunctioned and the 35 m shaft came crashing down on the workers Rescue operations were on till early last morning The MIAL the main contractor had awarded the subcontract for the work on this patch to Larsen and Toubro LampT In a press statement LampT said ldquoIn an unfortunate incident on February 6 around 11 pm at the construction site of the elevated access road at Marol Andheri E one of the segments being installed slipped resulting in the dislocation of a span The police ambulance and fire services immediately rushed to the site and started rescue operations There were three fatalities Six people who were injured were immediately rushed to hospitals Two with minor injuries were discharged after being administered first aid All necessary help is being provided to the victims and their families Investigations are being conducted to determine the cause of the incidentrdquo Asked about relief packages for the deceasedrsquos kin and the injured an LampT spokesperson said ldquoWe will be paying the compensation to the workers as per the Workmenrsquos Compensation Act and if we feel it is less we would pay morerdquo Asked if the workers were insured an LampT official said ldquoI will have to check but the workers who died or were injured in the accident were contract workersrdquo The Sahar Police have arrested the supervisor engineer and foreman under IPC sections 304A causing death by negligence 336 337 and 338 MMRDA says MMRDA Joint Project Director Dilip Kawathkar said ldquoIt is an unfortunate accident that occurred while the MIAL was carrying out work on the Sahar Elevated Road near the arrival area of the international airport in which three were reported dead and six injuredrdquo He added ldquoMMRDA wants to make it clear that the MIAL is constructing the 15km stretch from Hyatt Regency to the international airport terminal 2 The accident has taken place in their jurisdiction The MMRDA has no role as far as the construction of this stretch is concerned The MMRDA is constructing the 2km stretch of the elevated road from Hanuman Road Junction on the Western Express Highway up to Hyatt Regency on Sahar Roadrdquo MIAL says An MIAL spokesperson told MiD DAY ldquoAt this point of time it will be difficult to say whether the accident took place because of human or mechanical error We will be setting up a small team which will investigate the matter from all angles to find the exact reason behind the accidentrdquo The victims Three labourers were killed and another six injured after a portion of a bridge coming up near the Mumbai international airport at Andheri collapsed late night on Wednesday The deceased are Santosh Das 22 Rambali Das 35 and Jainam Mandal 26 They were declared lsquobrought deadrsquo at the BMCrun Cooper Hospital ldquoThe post mortem reports concluded that they died due to multiple fracturesrdquo said a source at the hospital Three of the injured are admitted at Seven Hills Hospital two in Holy Spirit Hospital and one in Medicare Hospital at Andheri Three of these patients are critical and have been put on ventilator ldquoVictim Suresh Prasad 32 is unconscious and on ventilator He has sustained severe head injuries Mantu Prasad 45 who has suffered multiple fractures on hands and legs head injuries and internal bleeding is also on ventilator in the ICU Rajesh Yadav 23 has suffered facial cuts but his condition is stablerdquo said a Seven Hills doctor At Holy Spirit Hospital Birendra Das 28 is battling for life in the ICU Another labourer Vinod Kumar Yadav 27 is quite stable Both have sustained head injuries The condition of Sunil Kumar 25 admitted at Medicare Hospital in Andheri is stable According to coworkers Arun Kumar 27 a labourer went missing right after the accident They believe he might have got trapped under the debris 3 The number of labourers killed in the mishap at Sahar 6 The number of labourers injured in the accident at Sahar 1 Officials believe a labourer went missing and may be trapped under the debrisu00a0