A crane in use at an under construction Metro station at Saket here on Saturday toppled, causing panic in the city. Even as Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) maintained that there were no casualties, there was speculation that a number of labourers were injured in the accident.
According to the DMRC officials, the crane being operated by Larsen and Toubro overturned at the under-construction Saket Metro station at 12.15 p.m. “There was no injury to anybody. The incident happened when a 50 ton capacity crane, which was lifting a smaller capacity crane (Hydra) at the site developed a mechanical problem as one of the cylinders used for lifting the boom (lifting arm) of the bigger crane failed,” said a Metro spokesperson.
The crane was hired by Larsen and Toubro from Global Hydraulic Sales and was manufactured in 2006. It was certified fit for operations. “The Chief Project Manager from DMRC and other senior officers are supervising the recovery work and we maintain there were no casualties,” the spokesperson said.
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The incident occurred on the Connaught Place-Gurgaon metro line in Said-ul-Ajab area.
Past incidents
Saturday’s incident is the fourth accident since July 12 when an under construction pier at Jamrudpur collapsed, leaving seven dead. The following day six workers were injured when a crane being used to lift the launcher for clearing the construction toppled over. The accident occurred after the booms of two other cranes that were working in tandem with this crane snapped.
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Then on July 23, a worker was killed when hit by a falling steel beam got disconnected from the crane that was lifting it at a under construction site in Punjabi Bagh.
On August 12, a train derailed near the Metro station in Dwarka, which was followed by a similar derailment on the Yamuna Bridge on September 13.