Bengaluru: Senior citizen injured as Metro iron panel falls on auto

BENGALURU: An 81-year-old passenger was severely injured after a heavy iron panel above a Metro rail worksite came crashing down onto the autorickshaw in which he was travelling with his wife at BTM Layout on Wednesday.
While the driver and the woman escaped with minor injuries, Anand Rao, a resident of BTM Layout, is battling for life at a city hospital. Rao and his wife Soubhagya were coming from Jayadeva Junction to their residence at BTM 2nd Stage at 10.30am. The incident occurred near SBI bank.
BMRCL chief public relations officer BL Yashavanth Chavan said: “The rail-cum-road pier de-shuttering work was being carried out between Central Silk Board and RV Road of Reach 5 (Yellow Line) and while placing shuttering at the ground level, the panel hit the barricading boards placed along the alignment due to a sudden jerk from the crane. An autorickshaw, which was passing on the road, was damaged and a passenger was injured. He was taken to Sai Ram Hospital and later shifted to Apollo Hospital in JP Nagar for further treatment.”
Eyewitnesses said employees of BMRCL along with representatives of Hindustan Construction Company Ltd and URC Construction Pvt Ltd., who are taking up the work on the stretch from RV Road to Silk Board, took the victim to the hospital.
Suddaguntepalya police have registered a case.