In yet another mishap involving the Delhi Metro, a labourer was killed after he was hit by a steel beam being lifted by a crane at an under-construction metro site in west Delhi early this morning. The incident took place at 5.45 am at Ashok Park Metro station in Punjabi Bagh.
“The beam was being lifted for staging work at the station when the incident happened. The station is part of the under-construction Inderlok-Mundka line,” the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said in a statement.
The semi-skilled worker, identified as Vicky Singh (22), hailed from Uttar Pradesh.
“He (Singh) was guiding the crane movement and prima facie, it appears that the beam hit him on the shoulder. He was rushed to the nearby Maharaja Agarsen Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries,” the release said.
According to the release, there was no structural collapse in the incident. Singh was an employee of contractor IDEB-SUCG JV. The chief project manager in charge of this line, and the Metro safety team are investigating into the incident and an FIR has been lodged.
This is the third accident in the last two weeks at metro construction sites in the national capital, which raises questions over safety at such sites. In October last year an under-construction bridge in Laxmi Nagar fell, killing two and injuring 30.
Recently, the Comptroller and Auditor General, in its audit of the implementation of Phase I of the Delhi Metro project, observed that DMRC had scaled down its testing requirements in four cases, company representatives did not witness the tests in eight cases, and that it tested material in non-accredited laboratories and did not preserve the reports.