Chennai metro rail crane collapse kills one, injures six workers

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One person died and six others were injured when a malfunctioning crane dropped a massive steel reinforcement on workers at a CMRL (Chennai Metro Rail Limited) work site near Pachaiyappa’s College on Wednesday night.

According to CMRL general manager Krishnamoorthy, following the exploration of earth, reinforcements weighing up to 25 tonnes were readied, lifted by a crane up to a height of 25 meters and slowly lowered into the diaphragm wall pit with the manual assistance below at the metro station site in front of the college.

The crane boom failed while it was lowering the reinforcements into the 20m deep pit dug for construction of the diaphragm wall around 9.45 pm. The fall of the reinforcements hit the workers around, killing one and injuring six others, he said.

The deceased worker was identified to be Sindu, 30. The injured workers are Ravindra, 22, Sathik, 25, Imanuel, 30, Sonyla, 20, Jainul, 20 and Ajai, 35.

Mr Krishnamurthy told DC that the safety officer of General Consultants, technical consultant of CMRL, would probe cause of the accident and table his report to CMRL. Meanwhile, works have been stopped at the site.

This is the second accident reported in less than a fortnight as a huge iron scaffolding erected for construction of an arm of a pillar collapsed after the welding gave in on 100 feet near Vadapalani on July 26. Miraculously, none was injured.

CM Jayalalithaa announced `1 lakh solatium to the family of victim Sindhu and `25,000 to injured workers.