India: Bengaluru Metro pillar comes crashing killing mother, toddler son; BMRCL orders inquiry
The reinforcement cage of an under construction metro pillar collapses in Bengaluru
In the early hours of 10 Jan,A woman and her two-and-a-half-year-old son died, while her husband and daughter were critically injured after an under-construction Namma Metro pillar on the Outer Ring Road near Nagavara fellon their two-wheeler in Karnataka's Bengaluru.Bhimashankar Guled, DCP, East division, who spoke to The Hindu said, “Today morning around 10.45 a.m., Namma Metro pillar collapsed and hit a bike on which four persons were travelling. They are Lohith, his wife Tejaswini and their twins (a son and a daughter). Tejaswini and son Vihan were seriously injured and shifted to a private hospital. Unfortunately, Tejaswini and Vihan died.”
Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) Managing Director Anjum Pervez announced compensation of ₹20 lakhsfor the family of the deceased.“BMRCL will cover the entire cost of treatment of the injured persons. The construction work at the site will stop for 2 days. What has fallen down is a reinforcement structure, not a pillar. It was not a concrete structure. It has four ropes, and one of them seems to have broken. We’re asking the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) to provide a report on this incident. We will also get our internal team to investigate the matter. This is the first time something of this magnitude has happened.”
Bengaluru city traffic police tweeted: “Metro pillar fell down in ORR near HBR Layout; traffic is congested at various junctions. Our traffic field officers were present and traffic will be cleared very soon.”
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Anjum Parvez, the managing director of BMRCL, announced that an internal audit will also be conducted.
However, the incident, which occurs months before the state's scheduled elections, has sparked a political debate."This is the result of the 40 per cent commission' government. There is no quality in development work," Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
(With inputs from agencies)
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