No one responsible for Andheri metro mishap?

There was strong suspicion that while nature may have played its part, laxity by people developing the project led to the tragedy at Airport Road station on the 11.07-km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar metro corridor on September 4. However, an expert committee that probed the issue is silent in its report on who is to be blamed, as Mumbai Metropolitan Region Develop-ment Authority (MMRDA) had kept the negligence part out of the ambit of inquiry.

Blame the rain? A section of an under-construction pillar on the VAG metro corridor collapsed on September 4. A construction worker lost his life and 11 others were injured in the mishap. File pic

The findings state that the cause of the accident was soil erosion and not error on the part of the contractor. One person died and 16 others were injured in the mishap.

Speaking to MiD DAY, MMRDA additional metropolitan commissioner SVR Srinivas said, "The report submitted by the expert committee, which was appointed by MMRDA to probe into the matter states that the main reason for the accident was soil erosion because of rains. As a result of the showers, the soil under the pavers got washed away and the surface became uneven. So, one of the scaffoldings holding up a part of the structure gave way."

The experts committee has also suggested that from now on periodic safety reviews should be carried out along the entire corridor.

Soon after the accident, MMRDA had constituted a two-member committee comprising professor of transportation systems engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Dr KV Krishna Rao and chief engineer from PWD SD Tamseka, to advise it on the causes behind the calamity. An under-construction staircase on the Rs 2,356-cr VAG metro corridor came crashing down on September 4.