Mumbai: In the aftermath of the Metro 4 slab collapse, which killed one and left three injured, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has launched a comprehensive inspection of all metro lines and terminated the consortium of the general consultants (GCs) – Louis Berger, Hill International and DB International, who are among the top firms in the industry.
One of the injured, Rajkumar Yadav, 45, is in a critical condition in the ICU, while two others are stable. The upcoming inspection will cover structural joints, cracks and safety compliance, officials said, underlining a zero-tolerance policy on lapses.
“Over the last two-and-a-half years, more than 150 notices have been issued to these consultants (DB-Hill-LBG) across various projects. They were repeatedly warned that their work was slow,” the official said. Preliminary findings suggested that the contractor had cut a section of the cement parapet segment at the incident site a week ago in the GC's absence and the section was not fixed properly due to lack of curing. The stretch was earlier executed by Reliance-Astaldi JV, but the work was sublet to Milan Builtech in 2022 due to delays and further subcontracted to smaller agencies. The contractor has been fined Rs5 crore and the GCs with Rs1 crore, which may be hiked further if needed.
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Officials said that accountability extends beyond the contractor to the GC, who is paid to monitor site activities and be physically present. “Preliminarily, we have understood that the contractor had cut a section of the cement parapet segment without proper supervision and no GC personnel were present at the time,” an official said. He continued, “The GC didn’t even know when the parapet was cut. Later, the GC says it told the contractor not to do it, but the latter did not listen. Who will trust this? Accountability begins from the design stage itself.”
At the mishap site, a total of eight parapets were installed; of which seven were old and one had been installed only a week earlier. “Even 11 hours after the cut, the GC did not know or did not have people on site,” the official added. The agency said the cause of the parapet cutting will be investigated by both the police and the authority to ascertain whether it was sabotage or negligence. “Police will probe from their side, but the MMRDA will also investigate all angles,” the official said.
The MMRDA further said all metro sites are equipped with CCTVs that can be monitored remotely through iPads and hence the war-room is not used any more. A GC supervisor has to be physically available on sites, the official added. The authority said strict action will be taken against contractors and consultants not following the norms. The agency said that a state-level cell, led by an engineer, has been formed to monitor whether safety and security SOPs are being implemented at the sites.
Lessons to differentiate a joint from crack
The agency also plans to create public awareness on different types of structural joints to prevent panic caused by misinterpretation of expansion joints as cracks. “People often click photos of expansion joints and think they are cracks. We will explain these joints on social media to avoid unnecessary panic,” the official said.
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