1 killed, 6 injured as crane collapses at Metro Rail site

A migrant labourer was killed and six others injured after a crane collapsed at a Metro Rail construction site near Pachaiyappa’s College on the busy Poonamalle High Road here on Wednesday night. This is the first fatal accident at a Metro site in the city.

The incident occurred around 8.30 pm when the arm of a crane that was holding 25 tonne steel rods snapped and fell, dragging a worker in the process into a diaphragm pit (for building the underground Metro station). The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital and later shifted to the Government General Hospital.

While Sindhu (30) died on the spot, Sonilal (20), Imanullah (35), Jamal (20), Ravindran (23), Sadif-al-Aslam (23) and Ajai Mohan Singh (35) were being treated at the GH.

Metro Rail chief public relation officer S Krishnamoorthy told reporters that it took nearly an hour to rescue the workers and shift them to hospital.

Workers said the toll could have been much higher as over 100 workers were at the site when the accident occurred. “An inquiry is on to ascertain what caused the crane to snap. The work at the site was contracted to L&T and SUCG,” Krishnamoorthy said.

Immediately after the accident, a fire tender and several ambulances rushed in and the site was cordoned off. A minor accident occurred on July 26 at Vadapalani when a huge iron shell used to fill concrete to build a supportive arm crashed at Vadapalani.