Contractor faces action as heavy Metro rig crashes

PIMPRI CHINCHWAD: Many people had a narrow escape after a 30-foot and 120-tonne piling rig being used in Metro work came crashing down near the Nashik Phata Chowk on the old Pune-Mumbai highway on Saturday afternoon.

No injuries were reported in the mishap, which occurred around 2.30pm, narrowly missing two key flyovers in the area. The contractor responsible has been fined, and the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MahaMetro) said further action will be initiated.



The incident occurred exactly two months after an advertisement hoarding frame collapsed at Shahir Amar Shaikh Chowk near the busy June Bazaar area on October 5, killing four people and injuring several.

The piling rig was being used by MahaMetro to drill into the ground to check for underground utility lines at Nashik Phata, where pillars are to built to support the elevated Metro section of the Pimpri-Swargate corridor.

A PMPML bus, a private company bus, a car and a two-wheeler narrowly avoided being in the spot when the crane, on losing balance, toppled over. “A PMPML bus going towards Bhosari just missed getting crushed as the tall, heavy machine fell right after the bus crossed the spot. Another car too was lucky, as the driver saw the rig crashing down and applied sudden brakes,” said Dattatreya Landge, a resident of Kasarwadi, said.

“The light had just turned green for vehicles going towards Pimpri on the service road of the highway. A private company bus, coming from Kasarwadi,drove ahead. A few seconds later, the huge machine fell,” he added. The bus was carrying around a dozen employees of the private company.

Akash Patil, a college student from Pimpri, was having a cup of tea at a roadside stall. “Apart from the bus and car, a two-wheeler also escaped getting pinned. I immediately recalled the accident involving the hoarding frame, which collapsed at Shahir Amar Shaikh Chowk and killed four people in October. Luckily, no one died or was injured in this accident,” Patil said.

“A major tragedy was averted as the main portion of the machine did not fall on the double-decker flyover on the right, or on the Kasarwadi-Pimple Gurav ramp. Had it fallen on the second tier of the flyover, its spans could have fallen on the vehicles passing under,” local NCP corporator Shyam Lande said. Several shops were located on the left side on the Kasarwadi-Pimple Gurav ramp.

Traffic was thrown out of gear for 5-10 minutes, as a crowd gathered following the accident. Many were seen filming or taking photographs on their smartphones. “Our personnel reached the spot within five minutes of the mishap. Traffic was affected for only 5-10 minutes,” Nilam Jadhav, assistant commissioner of police (traffic), Pimpri police, said.

Meanwhile, the opposition party in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation is gearing up to make this a political issue. Opposition leader Datta Sane criticized the BJP. Mayor Rahul Jadhav and ruling party leader Eknath Pawar visited the spot later in the evening.

“MahaMetro must carry such work only at night to avert such accidents. The NCP will not allow the work to be executed during the day. We demand that MahaMetro take adequate safety measures while carrying out the Metro construction work. We will raise this subject in the civic general body,” Sane told TOI.

“We are glad no one was injured in the incident. We will be issuing strict instructions to MahaMetro to take safety measures at construction sites on the highway to avoid any future mishaps,” Vijay Bhojane, spokesperson for PCMC’s Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) cell, said.

In a statement issued later in the evening, MahaMetro said its safety department regularly inspects sites where piling rigs are used. “The driver operating this particular rig has six years of experience and is well trained. He has been working at the site (Nashik Phata) for the past six months. He has carried out more than 100 jobs on the piling rig,” the statement read.

MahaMetro put the accident down to a combination of the massive weight of the rig and the crumbling soil underneath. “MahaMetro has taken action against the contractor and imposed a fine. The department concerned has been told to take further action,” the statement added.