18.08.2009

Crane drops load at another Indian metro site.

A mobile crane working on the metro construction in Bangalore dropped a beam that it was lifting during the assembly of a launching crane.

The crane was owned or working for the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation, when it dropped the beam, a component of a large launching girder crane, into the road, on Friday.

The mobile crane’s cab was struck by the falling part, but the operator, Kulvinder Singh escaped unhurt. Fortunately a bus had broken down further along the street and was blocking traffic. So there were no cars under the work site, otherwise the incident could have had far more serious consequences.

A witness is reported as saying “The bus breakdown resulted in one-way traffic and there was no movement of vehicles on that side of the road where the girder part fell. Thus motorists escaped being hurt.”

According to local reports the ground under the mobile crane, thought to be a tractor crane, “caved in suddenly”.

Vertikal Comment

It seems that metro construction and cranes is a dangerous mix in India at the moment. There have been a number of accidents, particularly with the launching cranes which lift the massive concrete beams into place.

Observing from a distance it would appear that lift planning is almost an afterthought and that the contractors rush into lifts in an almost cavalier manner. This is then compounded by the almost arrogant attitude of the senior managers at the metro companies.

If local newspaper reports are to be believed this latest accident was dismissed as “just a work hazard” by senior managers at BMRC. And yet if a car or two had been passing at the time several innocent people could have lost their lives.