A day after one person was killed and eight were injured when 13 slabs of the under-construction Eastern Freeway collapsed near Shanti Nagar in Wadala on Thursday night, the MMRDA clarified that the structural failure of launching girder led to a very unfortunate accident on July 19, 2012, in which one person died and seven injured.
Dilip Kawathkar, Joint Project Director (PR), MMRDA, said, “The structural failure of launching girder led to a very unfortunate accident on July 19, 2012 in which one person died and seven injured. The injured have been admitted to Sion and KEM hospitals. A compensation of Rs.5 lakhs to the family of the deceased and treatment and compensation – depending upon the severity of the injury – will be given to the injured. Inspection by the consultants and field engineers, prima facie, indicates that structural failure of launching girder led to this mishap as the segments of the span which were erected and being glued together fell down. This accident also caused damage to a car, a transit mixer, a taxi as well as a truck under the flyover. The fire brigade rushed to the site and began rescue operations immediately. Three cranes were also immediately mobilized to remove the collapsed launching girders and the segments. This operation is expected to be completed within 36 hours to enable the traffic to ply smoothly on WTT road.”
Kawathkar further said, “The MMRDA has already initiated an enquiry into the accident towards identification of the cause of accident and fixation of responsibility for the same. A technical committee comprising independent experts will also be appointed immediately towards this enquiry. The Contractors for the project – M/S.
Simplex Infrastructure Ltd. – had also worked with MMRDA on Lalbaug flyover project and an action to debar them from taking up any work with MMRDA for two years had been initiated for failure to observe safety norms in the Lalbaug flyover project. Eastern Freeway is a project that aims at connecting south Mumbai at the Orange Gate to the eastern suburb at Anik. This is a 9.29 km long four-lane elevated corridor. Using the pre cast segmental type construction, 267 spans of the total 313 spans have been completed successfully till date.”