NEW DELHI: Six persons were killed and over a dozen injured when an under-construction Delhi Metro bridge collapsed near Lady Shri Ram College in South Delhi on Sunday.
Owning moral responsibility for the worst accident in the history of Delhi Metro, the Delhi Metro Rail Corp. (DMRC) chief E. Sreedharan, and stepped down.
The concrete slabs that collapsed were part of an elevated section of a new Metro route between the Central Secretariat and Badarpur section. The accident took place around 5 a.m.
A launching girder along with a portion of the elevated tracks set up on pre-fabricated pillars collapsed with an ear-splitting noise.
Sreedharan said the incident took place between pillars 66 and 67 when the pillar cap was affected. Ten segments were to be erected on the stretch, of which five had been completed. When the sixth segment was being erected, the launching girder —one of the longest — collapsed due to disbalance.
“The 4.23-meter-long cantilever (which collapsed) was longest to be used in any of the DMRC project. It was holding two girders -—one launching girder and the girder to be erected,” the DMRC managing director told a press conference.
“Twenty people who were working on it got injured, and out of them, five were killed. The injured were rushed to various hospitals,” he said.
Sreedharan, the 77-year-old technocrat who has earned the sobriquet of India’s “Metro man” and has been honored with Padma Shri for his exemplary public service, owned “moral responsibility” for the crash and quit.
“I have been in charge of the Metro since the beginning. I take full responsibility for the accident, and having taken the full moral responsibility I resign as the managing director of the Delhi Metro,” he said.
“I may not be directly connected with the accident. But I am the head of the organization and have to take the moral responsibility,” Sreedharan added.
However, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said that the decision over his resignation would not be taken in haste.
Delhi Police have registered a case of negligence against the company.
Said Joint Commissioner of Police (southern range) Ajay Kashyap: “Our immediate priority is to clear the debris and to carry out rescue operations. We have registered a case of negligence, and technical experts will carry out an inquiry into the matter.”
“The traffic, and power and water supply in the area have been affected following the rescue operation. Debris clearance will take time as the collapsed structure is quite big,” Kashyap said.
The Delhi government announced a compensation of Rs.500,000 to the kin of each of the deceased, Rs.200,000 each to those permanently disabled and Rs.50,000 each to those injured. The compensation will be paid by the DMRC.
