Poor road quality to blame for crane mishap?

HYDERABAD: Preliminary investigations say that poor quality of road could be reason for the mishap. At the accident spot, the right wheel of the crane completely caved in. Workers on the spot told Express that since the road had a gradual incline towards the edge of the road, the crane could have lost balance as it did not have a straight foothold. 

This was worsened by the fact of varying road width. The road was several feet thick at the median but thinner towards the edge. “Since the road must have been newly-laid, it could not bear the weight,”  a GHMC official said.

Speculations are rife that lapses could have crept from the contractor’s side. 
“To lay the girders we have been using bigger ‘Groove’ 600 cranes which have 600-tonne capacity. However, on Saturday when the crane at the casting area was damaged, this crane was sent there,” a staff engineer said.

So instead of using heavy machine, the contractor gave a 150-tonne capacity crane. The workers said that the existing crane that toppled was also working perfectly well.  “On Sunday we started using it and it worked well.  Just before the accident, two giant girders had already been placed by the crane,’’  the staff said.