Just a mishap or Metro negligence?

40-feet high pillar of iron rods falls on family travelling on 2-wheeler near HBR Layout , mother, two-year-old son die

Rachana Ramesh, Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: In a horrendous mishap that was waiting to happen in a city where several stretches of Namma Metro are under construction and safety measures have been reportedly far from satisfactory, a 28-year-old woman and her two-year-old son succumbed to injuries after bars of an under-construction metro pillar collapsed on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) near HBR Layout on Tuesday morning.

The deceased have been identified as Tejaswini and her son, Vihan. Weighing over several tonnes, the 40-feet pillar of vertical TMT bars fell and struck the family of four travelling on a two-wheeler around 10:45 in the morning.

According to the traffic police, the family including the father, twin children (son and daughter), and the mother were on a motorcycle when the pillar tilted and collapsed. Fortunately, the husband Lohith and the twin daughter Vishmita have escaped death.

Lohith was riding the bike and Tejaswini was the pillion rider, the police said, adding that both of them were wearing helmets. The bars were reportedly lying in a circular column to build pillar number 218 for Namma Metro’s 38.44km KR Puram-Airport line under Phase 2B. The work on the line has been suspended along the outer ring road for two days.

Local residents and commuters in the area staged a protest. For thousands of city residents who are forced to travel via Metro construciton sites where girders and iron structures jut out dangerousy, this has come as a wake-up call and has also reinforced the need to make civic and Metro authorities get their act right and make sure innocent citizens do not fall victim to such accidents for no fault of theirs.

In fact Mobility expert MN Sreehari has stressed the need for a full-fledged inqury to find out why they were constructing such a weak structure and who had permitted it without verification.

'I lost my daughter due to civic apathy'

An inconsolable mother of the deceased woman at the hospital said, "I lost my daughter and her child due to civic apathy. I lost my family. The pain is unbearable to me.” Sushma, sister of Tejaswini, said, "Nobody should go through such pain of losing their innocent family members to such a gruesome incident.''

Tejaswini originally hails from Gadag. She worked as an IT professional at Motorola while Lohith worked for a civic agency in Vijayanagar. The family resided in Horamavu, and their daily routine involving dropping their children at a Montessori around 10 am and then catching on with work.

"I lost my daughter-in-law and grandson due to the fault of someone else. The government must take severe action against the persons involved and monitor civic agencies on their carelessness," said Lohit's father while weeping.

Crossed the pillar by 90 percent:

\Witness Praveen, an eyewitness, told News Trail that the motorcycle was behind a bus and was close to passing the pillar when the tragedy happened. “They had crossed the pillar area by 90 percent but the rods hit the woman on the head. Her child then fell off the motorcycle, while the husband and daughter were able to escape."  

He noted that the pillar did not start to fall suddenly but started to tilt at a slow pace from around 10:30 am. After the incident, locals and commuters rushed the injured to hospital. “The husband and daughter were shocked looking at their loved ones. The child was profusely crying,” he added.

Bigger tragedy avoided

According to other witnesses, it was fortunate that the pillar bars did not fall on other vehicles. The collapse, however, affected the movement of traffic in the area and a huge number of vehicles were seen stuck in the massive 4-kilometre traffic jam on the Outer Ring Road at various junctions.

'Result of 40% commission govt'

KPCC president DK Shivakumar alleged that 40 per cent commission being demanded for public works had resulted in poor quality work. “This is due to the 40 per cent commission government. There is no quality in development works,” he said

BMRCL asks IISc to probe

BMRCL Managing Director, Anjum Parwaz, has defended their construction quality and has said that there is no question of inferior work. He said that IISc has been asked to study the structure and provide a report. In a statement, the BMRCL has said that notices are being issued to the contractor and the concerned engineers.

The contractor is reportedly from Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) Ltd. The BMRCL had reportedly issued tende