Operations had been stopped along the entire corridor for over 20 days to permit a safety review after tragedy struck the Andheri metro site
Chances of meeting next year’s March 31 deadline are slim, but work has resumed on the 11.07-km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (VAG) corridor. There was a lull for a period of three weeks following the mishap at Andheri’s airport road station on September 4 to allow a safety audit of the route by Swiss agency Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS).u00a0
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Work recommenced yesterday after SGS submitted its preliminary report to Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL) — the contractor for the project.
Confirming the developments, SVR Srinivas, additional commissioner, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) — that has undertaken the rapid transit system —, said, “After three weeks, work on the entire corridor has started again as the agency appointed by MMOPL to do the safety audit has tendered its pilot report.”
An official from MMRDA, close to the metro work, said that on Tuesday morning two girders were launched near Western Express Highway.
Even though SGS has presented its initial findings to MMOPL, the MMRDA appointed independent expert committee — comprising professor of transportation systems engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Dr KV Krishna Rao, and chief engineer from PWD SD Tamsekar – is yet to finalise and submit its report on the reason behind the mishap and recommendations to prevent such episodes in future.
An MMOPL spokesperson said, “We have started work along the VAG corridor from Tuesday under the active guidance of SGS. The SGS team has deployed its personnel 24X7 to oversee the security measures to assist in safety compliances.”u00a0