A Namma Metro under-construction pillar collapsed on a family of four on a scooter, killing a 28-year-old woman and her toddler son.
Published Jan 11, 2023 | 5:33 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 11, 2023 | 5:33 PM
Namma Metro Pillar Collapse Accident that killed a 28-year-old mother and her toddler son in Bengaluru
A day after the collapse of a Namma Metro under-construction pillar, which killed a 28-year-old woman and her two-year-old son in Bengaluru on Tuesday morning, the city police on Wednesday, 11 January, announced the names of eight accused persons and entities — including two senior engineers from the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) — said to be directly responsible for the accident.
The accused were identified as contractor firm Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC), its Junior Engineer Prabhakar, its Director Chaitanya, its Senior Project Manager Mathai, its Project Manager Vikas Singh, and its Supervisor Lakshmipathi.
The BMRCL officials accused in the case are Deputy Chief Engineer Venkatesh Shetty and Executive Engineer Mahesh Bendekari.
“Since the technical experts had to visit the spot yesterday and conduct a detailed analysis as to how the accident had occurred — before the collapsed under-construction pillar was cleared for movement of traffic on the Nagavara Road — and ascertain the negligence factor of the concerned officials, we were unable to come out with any names of the accused party, but we had written to the BMRCL to provide us with the list of officials entrusted with this project,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (East Division) Bhimashanker S Guled told South First on Wednesday.
“Now that we have identified the concerned office bearers and persons, we have issued notices asking them to appear before the investigating officer (IO) to record their statements,” he added.
On Wednesday evening, Guled along with his IO once again visited the spot — this time with chief engineers from government organisations — to understand the process of how a pillar is constructed from scratch, and then ascertain the roles and responsibilities of the employees of the contracting company as well as officials from the BMRCL.
They were also looking to identify what went wrong: Was the accident the result of a technical error or was human negligence behind it?
The accident, exposing Bengaluru’s civic apathy, happened around 10.30 am on Tuesday, after a bunch of vertical TMT iron bars of the under-construction metro pillar collapsed on the Outer Ring Road in East Bengaluru’s Nagavara locality.
The bunch of vertical iron bars was reportedly lying in a circular column, and was to be used to build pillar number 218 for Namma Metro’s 38.44-km KR Puram-Airport line under Phase 2B.
The cylindrical pillars, weighing several tonnes, fell about 40 feet along the busy road in HBR Layout and struck the family of four travelling on a scooter.
This killed the mother and toddler son on the spot, and injured the father and their minor daughter.
